Maine State Grange

Memories and Memorials, Sad versus Somber

I’ll confess to stifling a smile during this year’s Memorial Service at the 155th State Grange Convention. For some reason, I recalled leaving a convention at the Skowhegan Rec Center a few years ago. The “labors of the day” were complete except for a rehearsal of the next day’s Memorial Program.

There’s a playground abutting the center and I was pleased to see a number of children swinging and sliding. As I headed to my vehicle, a parent approached me tentatively. “Excuse me. Do you know what is going on inside the building?”

I answered briefly, explaining the convention and its purpose. “Well,” Dad said. “My daughter went in to use the bathroom and she said it’s a funeral!” I again stifled a smile, realizing with the altar in place, the music… it did, in fact, resemble a funeral. I asked to meet his daughter and explained what she’d seen, offering (with Dad’s permission) to take her inside and show her. She and her Dad seemed visibly relieved. They thanked me for my offer but declined the tour. Swinging and sliding were much more interesting.

Another confession from this year’s service is that I “enjoyed” it. Chaplain Clay Collins does a nice job in part because he understands an important truth. Somber doesn’t equal sad. Perhaps our collective realization of that explains the trend away from funerals to celebrations of life. It’s more than a semantic difference.

During the reading of the ever-familiar poem by A. L. Frink my mind was still a bit stuck on that little girl’s perception of what was happening. The idea of a funeral was disconcerting. The idea of honoring and remembering people was reassuring. It’s more than a difference in labels. It’s a difference in vision that can move us from sadness to seriousness and that seriousness can be hopeful

Shall claim of death cause us to grieve,
And make our courage faint or fail?
Nay! Let us faith and hope receive:
The rose still grows beyond the wall.

This year’s convention was certainly “different” with many reminders of the uncertainties we face as individuals and Granges. But, thanks to the Memorial Service, I left realizing that wherever there is a wall, there is also a way to grow around it, over it, under it, through it. We just need to find or make the way and continue to “scatter our fragrance” just as we did in days of yore. Just as we will forevermore.

With thanks to Chaplain Clay, there’s a complete copy of this year’s Memorial Service in the Chaplain’s Section of the Program Books and Information Page. I commend it to you and encourage you to view it seriously but not sadly. Local Chaplains may choose to adapt portions of it for local memorial services that are typically conducted in the spring. One change from the printed program is that Steven Haycock filled in for James Owens for the tribute to State Deputies.

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Any degree or ritual quotations are from the forty-sixth edition of the 2013 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.

Degrees and Symbols

As many know, the Valley Grange “Words for Thirds” Dictionary Program has become a “rite of passage” in our area–and a bit of a ritual. We had to make significant changes in our approach last year when COVID meant third graders couldn’t visit the Grange Hall and Grangers couldn’t visit them at school.

One of the things I’ve always enjoyed is showing the kids the staves, explaining what farmer’s tool each represents, and how we apply that to “the Grange Way of Life.” I’m also always pleased when the thank you notes we receive include hand-drawn staves. The kids remember them!

So I can’t resist asking you to list the four staves. Bonus points if you know which officer carries which stave! (This is reminiscent of the game “Are you smarter than a third grader?”

While the recently released National Grange Brochure doesn’t cover the staves, it does a nice job of summarizing the Four Degrees: their emblems, seasons, and lessons. You can read the introductory post and download a copy from The Program Books and Information Page. One thing that recommends this brochure is that it removes any mysticism, simplifies the degrees and symbols, and shows how they can apply to our daily lives.

The kids are pretty good at the application when we discuss the staves. I offer a brief explanation, then invite them to consider if they had one in their classroom, what might it remind them of? One of my all-time favorites came from a young fellow who said, “The pruning hook would remind me to pick up papers and trash on the floor of our classroom.” I was less pleased when a student asked if we couldn’t use it to “cut out the math lessons.” But she gets points for thinking. And we get to think about the fact that we don’t always like what’s good for us.

I wonder–do we “modern-day” Grangers consider the Degrees and Symbols as part of our daily lives to the same degree our forebears did? The kids end up thinking about what agriculture and farming tools can teach us. Some think it would be pretty awesome to have staves in their classrooms. (They really like the owl.) We make the point that their dictionaries are tools as well and try to teach the concept of stewardship in a simple form.

Are we smarter than third-graders?

Memorizing the degrees and symbols can be fun, but let’s not miss the meaning. If a Grange is struggling, could we not look at the emblems as a way of thinking through change? What do we need to prune out? Can the hoe help us “destroy error… while promoting the growth of knowledge and wisdom?”

An obvious Lecturer’s Program based on this brochure is to develop a “trivia” contest based on the degrees and symbols. But if we stop there, we fail our purpose as educators.

When is the last time someone other than the master actually looked at the items in the implement case and thought about each? The knowing is good, but let’s not omit the doing. What tools do we have to grow ourselves and our Granges and how are we going to best use them? Who is ready to grab the shepherd’s hook and lead the way?!

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Any degree or ritual quotations are from the forty-sixth edition of the 2013 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.

People like us do things like this…

Seth Godin recently described culture as “People like us do things like this.” That’s an interesting definite that Grangers could apply to our Ritual and Heritage. Seth also noted that “Our conversations and arguments about how we react to changes in the culture do little to change the forces that are shaping our future, though.” He concludes “Our response to change is often all we have control over. And the way we respond is how we create the next cycle of culture and possibility.”

That somewhat coincidently aligns with some conversation I had recently with Amanda Brozana Rio regarding the reorganization and fantastic growth of Jefferson Grange in Pennsylvania. (If you missed that interview, it’s available on the MSG website and YouTube channel. After reorganizing, they doubled their membership in three months.) One of the components of the reorganization was considering what the culture of Jefferson Grange would be like. In Seth’s terms, they thought long and hard to define what “people like us were going to be doing.” The basis of their recruiting program became finding like-minded people doing the things Jefferson Grange would be doing.

Of course, that also meant they had to be clear on what they would be doing—and, to some extent, thinking! For an organization steeped in tradition, this can become challenging in part because tradition and ritual sometimes mean doing without thinking. But it’s also important to realize that “thinking” doesn’t mean changing or abandoning.

“Syncretism” is one of those fancy words that describes integrating new cultural ideas and practices into the ones that already exist. We might think of it as “evolving” and it’s common in religious practice. It’s not about this or that; it’s about both.

We’ve recently entertained some families with younger children. We realized that while unrelated, nearly every child who visited was defined as a “grazer,” meaning they didn’t eat full meals—they tended to snack throughout the day. I confess we wanted (and to some extent did) stand our ground when it was mealtime. While the adults sat together at the table, the child “came and went.”

The families weren’t related and didn’t even know each other. We ultimately realized we were witnessing a new culture and we’d have little to gain by expecting something different. Well, we might have gained some frustration, I suppose. My point is not to argue the value of a sit-down family meal. We did have an established mealtime—it just took place over an extended period of time. And we were able to visit with the appearing and disappearing children. Later, we could reflect on the realities of family schedules with multitudes of activities and begin to understand that the family meal (an old cultural practice) was fitting into some new cultural realities.

I was reminded of the Grange president/master who declared the end of potluck suppers. He made it his job to prepare a meal for the membership before every meeting. His explanation was that “today’s young people” don’t have time to plan and prepare a portable meal to bring so I’ll do that for them. It was a potluck in the sense they didn’t know what they were getting until they got there, but it was a new approach and practice. I think that’s syncretism.

It’s easy to resist change, to dig in one’s heels and be unequivocal. But the results often are not productive beyond creating polarity. Whether or not we believe in evolution in the Darwinian sense, the term can be used to describe a comfortable change that recognizes it’s possible to be in favor of something without being against something else. In my potluck example, being in favor of the master/president providing the meal didn’t mean being against the “potluck.” (An interesting variation could be different members volunteering to provide the meal each month.)

You don’t have to be an intense student of history to recognize how the “Grange Way of Life” has evolved over the years. And to be thankful that it did! We can be equally thankful that some things have not changed.

We need to recognize, however, that society (culture) is changing at a much more rapid pace than ever before. In a recent adult class, I asked for a show of hands representing the reality and impact of 9-11. Over ten percent of the class were either not alive when it happened or were too young to remember what for many of us was a significant and very personal experience.

When we study the Grange of 150 years ago and compare it to the Grange of today, it’s comparatively easy to accept the differences. But, whether we like it or not, the timeline is shortening. Consider what the Grange (which usually means the one you are a member of) of ten years ago looked like in comparison to today—not just in terms of membership and budget but in terms of purpose and personality (or culture). What will it look like in a year or two?

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Any degree or ritual quotations are from the forty-sixth edition of the 2013 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.