Maine State Grange

Is It Test Time?

“I never really understood the connection between the Grange and agriculture,” was a comment I heard from a member recently. I was both surprised and not. On the one hand, that connection can be complex and, at times, overwhelming. But on the other hand, it’s also basic and helpful.

One reason we often miss that connection is that we aren’t reminded of it often enough. When is the last time you attended or participated in a degree day? Well, you’re going to if you keep reading. We only have time to scratch the surface but let’s start with the First Degree and listen to some of what the Master teaches at the outset. I have added some bold print for emphasis.

“The ceremony you are about to witness is to introduce you to the Ritualism of the Grange. There is far more to the Grange than Ritualism. The underlying philosophy of the Grange is portrayed by the oldest and most successful method of communication known to man—the use of symbols…”

It is important to note that this a lesson for candidates, people who, for various reasons, have decided to join the Grange—it is not an explanation of the Grange to someone who is unfamiliar with it. That’s why it sounds backward. Someone unfamiliar with the Grange should be hearing the “far more to the Grange than Ritualism” first. The Ritual was always meant to play a supporting role.

To fully appreciate that point, would you advertise an open house at your Grange so folks could “Come to see what we do” and then conduct the degrees? I hope not.

But we could, with a little effort, find in the degrees some information that would be useful during an open house. Listen to what the Master has to say in the very next paragraph.

“The chief objective of the Grange is to build a better and higher manhood and womanhood, and to develop a mutual respect and concern through brotherhood.”

Could it really be that simple? Remember, the degrees are for people who’ve decided to join. The Master is reminding them (and others attending) that they have joined to help build a better and higher manhood and womanhood, and to develop mutual respect and concern through brotherhood. If we jump ahead to the Overseer’s greeting to the candidates, there’s a clear connection.

“Additional laborers and maids are needed for work in the field and household, and we accept you as willing workers, now in waiting for the tasks to which you will be assigned: For in our fraternity there is work for all, and the idler has no place among Patrons of Husbandry.”

Here’s a place where we need to understand symbolism because the Overseer is suggesting a comparison and using symbolism. To paraphrase, “As we work together to build and improve our collective lives with mutual respect and concern, it’s like working in the fields and homes. There is lots of work for us… we are united by our objective and will work together fraternally.” (Fraternally means friendly or brotherly. It suggests a common purpose or interest—we’re not fraternal just for the sake of being fraternal!)

Granges—any organization, really—gets in trouble when they lose purpose. Ironically, one of the hazards of ritual is that it becomes a habit and is done without purpose or thinking. The founders didn’t form the Grange to “do the ritual.” The Master and Overseer make that clear at the outset of the first degree—if we listen. It should be hard to miss, actually, because one of the very next things we hear from the Lecturer is a reminder that “The first and highest object of our Order is ‘to develop a better and higher manhood and womanhood.’” If you are a member who celebrated the degrees, you heard that three times in the first few minutes.

When I’m teaching adults I often say, “If you hear me repeat something three times, that might be important—maybe even a test question.” I suspect the authors of the degree work were thinking the same. We don’t, unfortunately, test candidates on what they learn during the degrees.

Or maybe we do—just not in a traditional manner with questions. If we understand the chief objective of the Grange, the test is how relevant we are to our communities and how actively we are pursuing and achieving that objective.

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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.

This article is reprinted with permission from Good Day! Magazine, Volume 4, Issue 4, Winter 2020-21. You can download the actual pages from the magazine for printing. For additional information about subscribing, click the button at the end of this article.

Is It About Social Distancing or Hope and Perseverance?

Thanks to an early December winter storm, we were without power for several days. The Internet was unavailable. We felt quite “socially distanced” in nearly every sense of the words since snow piles and bent birches were blocking our driveway. We couldn’t get out. Not much is getting in. In a perhaps odd way,  we do not feel trapped. Possibly because of the limitations  already  imposed  by  the pandemic, this seems like merely “more of the same.”

For the past nine months, life seems to have been about what we cannot do. It’s been easy to forget that we should know better than to get trapped into thinking that way.

So as I sit “sheltering in place” in forced darkness, I find an opportunity to remember that many of the lessons of the Grange help us maintain perspective.

We are resilient and remember the words of the Fifth Degree, encouraging us to “hope and persevere.” Since many Grangers tend to be traditionalists, we find returning to oil lamps and the woodstove somewhat comforting and simplifying.

Admittedly, it’s a journey we’d prefer to make by choice.

But in a similar way, returning to the teachings of the Grange can be comforting and simplifying. Perhaps sitting next to an oil lamp and listening to the woodstove snap and crackle contributes.

Those sounds are less distracting than the beeping and buzzing of a smartphone or the laptop. Heck, I don’t even need to walk to the mailbox at the end of the driveway since it’s not accessible.

Nature prevails.

Sometimes that creates inconvenience, but it’s also a comforting truth.

Spring follows winter, just as summer follows spring. Sun follows rain. Life begins and ends and sometimes takes a different shape.

Growing up in New England, I learned a long time ago that “fighting” nature is not the way to go. As a child, big snowstorms meant no school — something we couldn’t do. But we were more focused on what we could do — sleep in, go out sliding, and building snow forts and people.

“There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing,” is a mantra often repeated by Scandinavian parents who insist their children spend some time outdoors every day.

As schools in the United States have learned to shift to remote learning, some districts announced there would be no more snow days. I’m not sure that’s a good thing from my childlike perspective.

One of the benefits of being Grangers is that we learn the importance of managing our own perspective with nature’s help. Instead of fighting with her, we should learn from her.

Current circumstances may force us to remember one of the lessons of the First Degree. It is especially fitting that the Overseer uses the language of yesteryear.

“Courage then, and patience, when gloom broods over your pathway. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. To the upright there ariseth light in darkness, and the path of the righteous shineth brighter and brighter, unto the perfect day. Then shall the crooked be made straight, and the rough places plain, and knowledge be revealed.”

In the language of today, please be patient. We will answer all emails in time, and we hope to return to our regular website posting schedule soon.

When contacted, the power company suggested we may have power restored within hours. I was a little disappointed they didn’t tell us to  “Hope and persevere.”

We’re still planning to fill the lamps, trim the wicks, and reload the woodbox.

We fill and trim because, without action, there is no hope. Without action, hope is just a way to pass the time until we’re done living. We can do more than sit in the dark and hope for the power company to arrive.

In the Second Degree, the Master provides a visual lesson with a few com kernels. “There is no object in which, to appearance, life and death border so closely together as in the grains of seed buried in the earth; but when life seems extinct a fuller and richer existence begins anew.”

For me, this was the most powerful and memorable lesson of my first experience with the Degrees. I remember so well watching the Master stir those hardened kernels in his hand and realizing that what we often view as an end is transformation.

Life finds a way.

Days end, days begin.

Light follows darkness.

We are granted the extraordinary privilege of observing, participating, and serving as stewards of the abundance of nature. “From this little seed we have, first the blade,  then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. So with the mind, when duly nourished with Faith and Hope.”

Look around, even in the darkness. Find some seeds — if not for your garden in the spring, then for your mind during these days that seem dark.

Even prior to the pandemic, one of my favorite things to do this time of year is to stroll during a snowstorm, particularly at night. It’s oddly comforting to experience the quiet as the accumulating snow deadens sound other than this gentle hiss of the falling snow. It’s as if nature is painting the landscape, bathing it in white, and covering everything so there are less distractions. There is less to see and hear while walking in a snowstorm, but so much to think and feel. An occasional animal track in the snow suggests that there are unseen fellow travelers who are… what? Are they in search of shelter or food? Or are they simply traveling because they can?

The snow is not their enemy, nor is it ours.

Like all of nature, the snow — if we choose to see it as such — gives us reason to hope and persevere.

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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 Amazon, or by contacting the author.

When we celebrate the degrees, there’s a natural tendency for us to get tired if they’re all done on the same day Of course, it wouldn’t make sense but I’ve occasionally wondered if once in a while we should do them in reverse! Whenever I decide to review them, I sometimes do just that—I start with the Fourth!

So let’s do that because there’s one particular section of the Fourth Degree that offers some amazing wisdom and ties some things together. It starts with the candidates receiving this advice from Ceres.

Brothers and Sisters, my tribute is the seed corn. Have FAITH. Faith in the spring of the year and the springtime of life. Even as little children have faith in their parents, so should we have faith in the great provider. We prepare our fields and plant the seed having faith in its resurrection.

And then Pomona admits she probably doesn’t need to say this.

I need not prompt you to nurture HOPE. Hope is the heavenly light that gilds our labors. Were we deprived of that source of consolation, life would indeed be dreary. When you see the blossoms open in the early summer hope is there for the luscious fruit. The labors of the husbandman and matron encourage hope at every turn. Let the fruit blossoms be to you an emblem of hope.

Then Flora teaches.

Let flowers be to you an emblem of CHARITY. In kind words and deeds dispense charity, as freely as Flowers do their perfume, and as generously as they cover all God’s footstool. Beautify and adorn your homes with Flowers. The home that is thus made fragrant and cheerful is prepared to be the abode of sweeter affections and more radiant virtues.

You may find yourself humming the tune “Faith, Hope, and Charity… that’s the way to live successfully…” But we’re not quite finished. The master is going to add a capstone.

Let the agate it be to you an emblem of FIDELITY. May your principles of manhood and womanhood be as firmly impressed as the lasting colors in the stone , and may our friendship be as firm as the stone itself.

There’s of course more but the Master quickly teaches the salutation of the Fourth Degree.

“A good Patron places faith in good, nurtures hope, dispenses charity and is note for fidelity.”

Do you see the pattern here? One of the often unnoted beauties of Grange Ritual is the way so many things tie together. So let me suggest an idea for you. I plan to ask the Master to allow me to do this as part of our next meeting or you can do it right now all by yourself. Start by standing up. Begin the salutation, “A good patron has faith in God…” Now stop, read and consider Ceres’ advice. Force yourself to pause and think about Hope. Do the same with Hope, Charity, and Fidelity.

And allow yourself a smile of satisfaction when you realize the power and beauty of the Grange teachings and Grange Way of Life.

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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 Amazon, or by contacting the author.