Ask this question of any Mason, and you will get a different answer each time. I am in charge of the Friendship night at my lodge this year, and, really reflecting on what does Masonry means to me and how to convey this to others. Masonry originally meant to me a family bond. My father is a Mason, as well as Uncles, a Great Uncle and other family members. All are men of great integrity and men of God. Qualities that are not common according to today's society, but qualities I wanted to posses. I took a quick an easy way into Masonry, call the Grand Master's One day class, and in one day my life was forever changed. Masonry has grown into so much more for me the years since that day. I walked away from that class, my head swimming with so much information that no human can process at once. I would not recommend it for anyone, but I did not think I had the time to go the traditional way. I was wrong, I became an officer, and found time in commutes and other misspent minutes in the day. Although masonry is not a religion, it offers no plan of salvation, but as taught in one of the lectures that "it is so far interwoven with religion as to lay us under obligations to pay that rational homage to the Diety, which at once constitutes our duty and our happiness." Masonry reconnected me to my religion, and motivated me to get back into church. Masonry is a great leveler, it gives a bond to men, who, under normal circumstances in life, would never be friends, let alone be close enough to call each other brother. No matter the financial status or religious base (as long as they believe in a higher power). I now have a group of brethren, that when needed, will be at my side no matter what. This includes complete strangers, every Mason I know can tell you stories upon stories of how fellow Masons have helped them at one point or another in their travels. Masonry is a great teacher. I am considered to be of an above average intellect. However, there are concepts of morality that are not taught in schools, and concepts that are taught in religion that take on a more profound, in depth understanding through Masonry. The lessons are put in a such a way, that they retain their meaning, long after the lesson is over. I have been challenged in more ways that I have ever been challenged in my personal or professional life. I have organized events, lead men, spoke to a large audience, been behind the scenes support, among other accomplishments. And every step of the way, have had men congratulate me on my successes, and counsel me in my failures, and never reject me for who I am or what I have done. So, to me, Masonry binds me to my heritage, bonds me to my brethren, and continually builds me into a better man today than I was just a few short years ago.