08/20/2026
🛠️ The Rough Ashlar Was Never Meant to Be Comfortable. 🛠️
Carl Jung once wrote:
"The greater the tension, the greater the potential. Great energy comes from a correspondingly great tension between opposites."
I think every Mason eventually discovers how true that is.
We often believe that becoming a better man means one day we'll stop struggling.
That we'll finally have all the answers.
No doubts.
No conflicting emotions.
No difficult decisions.
But that's not how growth works.
The Rough Ashlar doesn't become perfect because it stops resisting the chisel.
It becomes something beautiful because it endures the work.
Inside every Mason lives a series of opposites.
Confidence.....and humility.
Strength.....and compassion.
Justice.....and mercy.
Tradition.....and the courage to improve.
One part of us wants certainty.
Another part reminds us there's always more to learn.
One part wants to speak.
Another knows wisdom sometimes waits in silence.
The goal isn't to eliminate these opposites.
The goal is to learn from them.
Freemasonry has never promised an easy path.
It has always promised a better one.
Every degree reminds us that transformation requires friction.
The Common Gavel strikes the stone.
The Chisel cuts away what no longer belongs.
The Working Tools demand effort.
Without resistance...
There is no shaping.
Without pressure...
There is no polish.
Without tension...
There is no growth.
Maybe that's why the greatest Masons I've known weren't the men who claimed to have all the answers.
They were the men humble enough to keep asking better questions.
So if you're wrestling with life...
If you're carrying both gratitude and grief...
Hope and fear...
Confidence and uncertainty...
Don't assume you've lost your way.
Perhaps you're standing exactly where the Great Architect intends you to be.
Because the tension you feel isn't always a sign that something is wrong.
Sometimes...
It's the sound of the Rough Ashlar becoming a better stone.
So Mote It Be.
