I guess I could tell the actual story of how I got ask to join.
First off, it wasn't good ole Uncle J who asked me. No, at the time I was asked I don't believe I even knew UJ was a Mason. I was 21 and I had a summer job in Versailes I drove a forklift and worked in a warehouse. My boss was this middle-age guy who took a liking to me pretty early on, which to me, was weird b/c he was my boss. It was only like my third job ever so being friends with the boss was foreign to me. He and I would take breaks together , eat lunch together, stuff like that.( Pretty romantic, huh?)
Well after awhile, when we got to know each other better, I started noticing he and I would always seem to get ourselves in these huge philosophical convo/arguments. Everyday, without fail, it seemed like one of this type conversations would get started. I didn't mind them at all really, but b/c he was my boss, I was weary about disagreeing with him as much as I did. But despite this weariness, I never did kiss up by just agreeing with him. If I thought he was wrong, I'd tell him.
These discussions went on another month or so. Then one day,we stumbled onto the topic of pre-history. Which more or less was, an ancient aliens type discussion. This was '97, '98 and I honestly didn't know, at that time, there was such a thing as an ancient alien theory. Which was odd, b/c even though I didn't have the knowledge there was a real world theory on the subject, I had came up with my own vague theory that was pretty damn close to the actual ancient alien theory. In the most vague sense possible, of course. I know that may not seem too likely, but it's true. And looking back, the one reason it could be that I was totally ignorant of the actual theory was that, much like my atheism, I kept this particular theory to myself. So those," Hey, if you think like that, you need to check out this book Chariot of the Gods" suggestions didn't happen, which in turn, would have made me aware of the whole AA theory.
Why am I spending so much time trying to convince you of, what seems to be, such an inconsequential fact to this story? Well, I think it actually had a lot to do with me being asked to join. And by it, I mean the fact that I had came up with this theory on my own, and I wasn't simply repeating what I had heard or read. There is another part to this, but it's coming up next in the story.
So, like I said, we're having this discussion on pre-history and pretty much off the bat I sensed something different in ole dude. He wasn't disagreeing with me as much as he was picking my brain. Which wasn't our normal back and forth at all. It was a lot of,"If that's true, wouldn't that also mean this is true." and, "why/how do you think that happened?" It wasn't his normal, " You're wrong and here's why." spiel. It was like, and this is the other part I mentioned earlier, that I had stumbled on some kind of truth and he wanted to see just how I had done it. Basically, was it dumb luck or had I actually thought it out. Now, whether the Masons have their own theories on ancient aliens, I couldn't say, but ole dude seemed way to comfortable with the subject for me.
This discussion went on 3 or 4 days, which again, wasn't normal hat for us. We would start other convos but he would always come back to this one. I'm boring myself, so I'm going to try and speed this up. For whatever reason, I can't remember why I did really, but I told him that I was an atheist. One of the few people I had ever dropped that on. And he took it well, but what really stuck out to me was after that,i t seemed he wasn't really concerned with convincing me to believe in the traditional God, as much as it seemed his concern, determination really, was centered around simply convincing me there was *a god*. It was just odd at the time.
So basically, during the course of him trying to convince me to believe in a god, he revealed he was a freemason(he wore a masonic ring the whole time I knew him btw and I had no clue) and he really thought a person with my mind set and and so on, can't remember how he put it, would be perfect for the masons. Minus the atheism part, of course. Why didn't I lie and say I had finally seen the light on the whole god thing? A few reasons really. But the main one, I chalk up to youthful idealism. I thought that way for a reason, and by god, you can't get me to go back on something that I believe to be true. Especially after I've vehemently defended my position for 3 or 4 days. Calling you hurtful names in the process The other reason, youthful ignorance. I wasn't as keen on the Masons as I am today. I remember the actual term devil worshipers coming to my mind back then.
ray:Still a great human being though.
