Don\’t Wait
By Most Illustrious Companion John D. Barnes
Past Most Illustrious Grand Master and Grand Treasurer, Grand Council of New Jersey

\’But the important thing about learning to wait, I feel sure, is to know what you are waiting for.\’ -Anna Neagle

My Companion:

Are you waiting for Godot?

Waiting for Godot is a 1950\’s play in which the two main characters spend all their time waiting for someone who never appears. They spend their time doing nothing productive. They\’re not even certain if they are waiting at the correct place. They don\’t know exacting what he looks like, or what he does.

Adoniram did not wait. He saw the open door, and chose to enter. He acted on his belief that it had been left open for him. When he was not challenged, he proceeded on. If he had been challenged, he knew that he could try again another time. He didn\’t wait to receive the Master\’s Word: he asked Grand Master Hiram when he would receive it. He wanted to know what he could do to ready himself to receive it.

Are you sitting on the sidelines of your Council, waiting to be asked to be an officer, or waiting to be assigned a piece of ritual for a degree? DON\’T! The annual meetings are coming up; it\’s time to change officers for the new Cryptic Year. If you want to be a part of the group, not just a \”dues payer\”, now\’s the time to speak up for yourself. Ask to be an Officer. Ask to do a piece of work. Make yourself useful setting up the Council room, or putting things away. Don\’t wait to be asked. Get out there and lend a hand.

You hold the future in your hands. If you use it as a Working Tool, you will become a Select Master. If you merely hold on to it, afraid that you will lose it, you will fall asleep at your post – and we know how that turned out.

All things may come to he who waits, but he who goes out and searches for what he wants finds the really good things.