Geometry and Character

There is an interesting lesson about Character that can be learned from Geometry. When I was young, and my father was teaching me about character, I thought that the purpose of having a good character was so that people would like and approve of me. But in Masonry I learned something new.

I am writing a presentation for my Lodge about Thales, who the ancient Greeks and Romans revered as the "First Father of Geometry". In brief, after learning all he could in his home city of Ionia he traveled to Egypt to study with the Egyptian Builders. There he learned the Egyptian trick of using the Shadow Stick. After building a monument in the dessert the king would want to know how tall it was. So the Builders would drive a stick into the ground and measure it's height. They knew that when the length of its shadow equaled the height of the stick, the length of all shadows in the area would equal the height of the object casting them. So they would mark the length of the shadow and measure the height of the monument across the ground.

A subtle point needs to be made here. If the Shadow Stick is not perfectly perpendicular it induces a small error into the calculation. This small error is then multiplied many times when the measurement is used to calculate the height of the monument. Interestingly, the tool used to insure things are perfectly perpendicular is the jewel of the JW.

The moral lesson that I learned from this is that I am like the Shadow Stick. Just as the Shadow Stick must be perfectly perpendicular in order for it to be a useful tool in making accurate judgements about the world around it, so must my Character be perfectly upright so that I can use it to accurately judge and understand the world around me.

Do you think there may be some connection between the shadow stick and the rods Deacons and Wardens carry. This has something I have been researching but have not reached any conclusions as to their relevance to Masonry.

Very interesting and insightful.

Rick Carver said:

Do you think there may be some connection between the shadow stick and the rods Deacons and Wardens carry. This has something I have been researching but have not reached any conclusions as to their relevance to Masonry.

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I think that this is quite possible. There are many associations in Masonry that have useful lessons. One of my favorites is the idea that the two parallel lines on either side of the Point Within A Circle represent the two legs of the compasses that were used to draw the figure.

Warrior1256 said:

Very interesting and insightful.

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The most interesting part to me is that this story began as an investigation into the JW as the keeper of time in the Lodge. When asked by the WM what his duty is the JW replies that he observes the sun and calls the craft from Labor to refreshment (that is stated vaguely, but I encourage the Brothers to listen carefully the next time they are in Lodge). The fact that the JW uses these observations to regulate the business of the Lodge informs us that he is in fact telling time.

Observation of the sun is the original form of telling time and the sundial was the first clock. The vertical part of a sundial is called the gnomon. If the gnomon is not perfectly perpendicular or it induces a small error into the calculation of time, in much the same way that an leaning shadow stick induces error into the calculation of distance. The jewel of the JW can be used to correct both errors.

So originally I played with the idea of making the point that the plumb was used to insure the precision of both time and distance measurements. However the story became quite complicated to I decided for the sake of clarity to settle for making only one point.

fascinating,fascinating,fascinating,thanks for lights,magnific weekend everyone,continue grand job,yep,yep,yep,bye,blessings,

The talks given at tiled Table Lodge events are timed. Interesting correlation about the JW, thanks!