MASONIC VALUES

In A. Grey Le Cuyer’s attempt to portray the lighter side of the Masonic image (“The Artful Lodger,” So SoCal, Aug. 11), he has omitted a perspective of Masonry that is at the core of its existence.

While I was another who joined Ionic Lodge because of my father, what I found there were people who taught, practiced and supported a value system and behavior code that emphasized caring for the outside world, building for the future and being trustworthy to others and truthful to yourself.

The absence of younger men in Masonry probably reflects society’s materialistic value system. We should have higher goals than emulating the type of person who, regardless of the means, accumulates whatever he or she can.

I find it rewarding that I, and my family, can go to lodge and get away from that kind of an approach to life.

Dr. Ronald L. Koretz

UCLA School of Medicine

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My father was a free and very accepted Mason for more than 55 years. He always valued highly his lodge membership and considered his Masonic ring a prized possession.

Although I myself will never come to know the Masonic handshake or other elements of Masonry, I believe that its secret rituals may have played a part in my father’s longevity. He died at 96, still wearing his ring. I will always display his 50-year certificate with pride.

Carol M. Goodkin

Camarillo

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