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Went to my first dinner.. a little puzzled.

hanzosbm

Premium Member
Regarding the prickly brothers, I would probably be regarded as such, so maybe I can offer some insight.

Our lodge met last night and there were 4 men present who were not members of our lodge. One was visiting from a nearby lodge, one was having his petition balloted on that night, one had visited several times and turned in his petition that night, and one was a non-Mason visiting from Brasil who, for some reason, decided to visit us.
When I arrived, I had just finished a 10 hour work day, rushed home to scarf down dinner, then sat in 45 minutes of traffic to get the lodge. Honestly, I was pretty wiped out. On top of that, I'm generally a bit of an introvert. I'm not great at approaching people I don't know and striking up an energetic conversation, and add to that the stresses of the day, and I wasn't going out of my way to introduce myself. Besides, they were being chatted up by some other brothers.
None of that is to say I didn't like them, or didn't welcome them. In fact, I was glad they were there (and I did eventually introduce myself), but at the end of the day, we're all human and sometimes we're just aren't in the mood. I try to remind myself that new men in the OP's position are particularly sensitive to the reactions of the brothers of the lodge due to being an outsider and feeling out of place. This thread was a good reminder that I need to go out of my way to do better. But I also wanted the OP to understand that it might have nothing to do with you.
 
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