Meandering Around the Grange Way of Life
Growing the best fruit..
By Walter Boomsma, Guest Columnist
Many years ago, one of my consulting assignments included auditing the hiring process of a manufacturing company. That process included giving prospective employees a tour of the plant. I followed one of those tours, staying at the end of the line and observing.
One of those prospective employees would often reach down and pick up stray pieces of paper and trash on the floor. Based on my observation and recommendation, at the end of the tour, he was pulled from the group and hired on the spot.
Wherever you go, whatever your calling, aim to do good. Good deeds are ever fruitful of yet more good.
Lecturer to Candidates, Second Degree
It didn’t occur to me to ask if he was a Grange Member, but he could have been!
The second sentence of the lecturer’s instruction is a bit obtuse. Just prior to this advice, she asks the Assistant Steward if the candidates have been furnished with seed. The reply is that Ceres has provided corn and “enjoined” them to save the best for planting. The Lecturer notes that the candidates have been “guided by the lesson of faith.”
If we save the best seed for replanting, the harvest will increase. Doing good is much like planting seeds. Doing the most good produces even more good and that’s true regardless of who we are and where we are.
A candidate for employment picks up trash. He does some good and gets hired. He demonstrated that he aims to do good. His simple act demonstrates his potential as a good employee.
A candidate for membership in the Grange gets some good but simple advice. “Aim to do good.” It might be interesting if the lecturer were to ask each candidate to share an example of something good they have done. It shouldn’t be an intimidating question, although for some, doing good is instinctive and unconscious. The job candidate didn’t call attention to himself.
After receiving the Lecturer’s instruction, the Grange candidates move on to the Chaplain. The Chaplain reminds us “the springing seed teaches us to increase goodness…” and to “Do good, hoping for nothing in return, and your reward shall be great.”
This is not so complex or controversial. But in today’s society, where there is much complexity and controversy, a value of the Grange and Grangers is the demonstration of “doing good.”
A demonstration doesn’t have to be a protest.
Any degree or ritual quotations are from the forty-seventh edition of the 2023 Subordinate Grange Manual or the most recent edition of the Pomona Grange Manual. The views and opinions expressed in “Exploring Traditions” are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official doctrine and policy of the Grange. Information about the book “Exploring Traditions—Celebrating the Grange Way of Life” can be found at http://abbotvillagepress.com, on Mr. Boomsma’s Amazon Author Page, or by contacting the author.