Dante’s Kindergarten
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Sunday it was. It seems a long way away now, and yet in my nightmares it seems only moments ago…
30 something 6 yearold (or there abouts) children descended upon us like a biblical plague, bringing with them a phenomenal amount of noise. Amazingly, the town hall proved stronger than the walls of Jericho and we survived – albeit with enormous headaches 
Almost the entire contents of both B and his little friend Graham’s respective prep classes (it was Graham’s birthday too), plus a few hangers on.
Ah but apart from the intense fear, the mind buggering noise and the cleaning up afterward it was a lot of fun. R as per usual did a magnificent job of organising everything – made little gold medals with star stickers on them and saying things like “Great”, “Well done” and “First” etc, plus loads of party games, food and all sorts. I setup the camera and tripod on the little stage and apart from hefting furniture about I managed to stay mostly behind it. I got just about the whole thing on tape – and the kids had an absolute ball. People were raving about it the next couple of days at school – parents and kids – and B had a really really good time. It was pretty amazing to see all those children running amok, but I was very proud of R and her stellar efforts. Graham’s mum Tessa was Mother Wolf for the day, with the whistle and the managerial voice, even telling the parents to be shushed at one point, which I loved. She ran all the games etc and did all the yelling – for some reason it seemed a good idea to her to get them all screaming their heads off from time to time. Tessa is a strange woman.
She does however make a very cool Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cake It was huge, big enough to feed all the kids and have plenty of leftovers, and the ninja turtle on it looked awesome. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that none of the turtles in fact wear a yellow bandana, but none of the kids noticed so who cares 
B got even more presents from the party than he’d gotten from us, and got some pretty cool stuff – the cutest thing though was that most of the kids had written and/or made their own cards. One little fellow likes B so much he drew him a special picture of a horse as well, which he was stoked with. A very very successful day, and a very happy birthday all round. Hats off to R (and Tessa!) for once again being stunningly brilliant and pulling it all off.
Entered Apprentice
I am now officially an Entered Apprentice (1st Degree) of the Melbourne St Clair Reunion lodge! For the slower amongst us, this means I am finally a Freemason
The initiation was monday night and went really well – I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I was actually very glad of the research I’d done, as it enabled me to get a lot more out of the ritual and symbolism than I would have otherwise. Everyone was extremely supportive and welcoming, and I was toasted and cheered and given many many handshakes (secret and not so Although I did have to give a response speech which my erstwhile mentor forgot to tell me about!
One of the Brethren also brought along a lovely european lager for me, as he and I had chatted about decent lager at one of the cigar nights and he “couldn’t bear the though of me being forced to drink VB” When I’d finished that, he brought along another one! I also got a prize in the raffle, or swindle as they call it – a strange pen holder with an aboriginee puffing on a didgeridoo – no idea where they get this stuff…
All in all I’m well chuffed with myself, and eager to research more and progress, but I’ve taken the first step in what will be a lifelong journey, and I’m very much looking forward to seeing it unfold.
Night of Mysteries
Tonight’s the night! All I have to do is manage to distract myself for the next three hours or so until R comes to pick me up from work, then I go home, get all spiffed up and head down to the lodge. By the end of this night, I will be an initiate of the mysteries of Freemasonry – not something I would have believed this time last year. The Year of the Shiny Nate has made some very big changes, and something tells me that I’m still yet to comprehend just how big this particular change will be.
If I can manage it, I’ll probably blog when I get home
Tree of Knowledge
I read an interesting description of the Adam and Eve mythos the other day. I was reading a book by Israel Regardie, and in a footnote there is a short blurb about the concept of us choosing to become conscious creatures by “eating the fruit of knowledge”. So rather than mankind being “tempted” and falling to weakness, it looks at it from a point of view that we were previously happy like all other creatures, and we chose to seperate ourselves and become aware – with this came knowledge and all the things we now worry about that animals don’t.
It may seem odd but I have never really contemplated it this way before. I’ve never been truly comfortable with the idea of the Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve being literal, but this line of reasoning had never come up. When I explore it, it makes a great deal of sense – the “fall” didn’t introduce pain and death into a world where there was none. Carnivores didn’t suddenly become such having been originally created to eat grass, which is what I was taught. The beauty of the universe is it’s vast complexity – the ecosystems in our world are intricately balanced (or were, before we got stuck in) and as such they require the natural circle of predation and survival. What really happened (if you follow this line of thinking) was that Man chose self awareness. Once done – we were no longer able to survive unconsciously as do the animals. Knowledge of our nakedness could be seen both as a literal thing and as a euphemism but either way it is indicative of the kind of thing that affects us once conscious and unconscious thought are seperated.
As we have grown and evolved, we have seperated ourselves further from our unconscious knowledges – we no longer really experience a lot of the feelings we have, or have any conscious experience of our bodies or simple acts like breathing. In theory, that untapped reservoir would still be there for us to access did we but know how – and reaching back as close as we can to that original state of being is the ultimate aim, because obviously it brings us closer to that divine beginning.
Whether any of this means anything I don’t know but it’s a very interesting viewpoint, and explains some things a lot better than my sunday school teacher ever did…
If anyone has comments, I’d be interested
New suit
Less than a week now until my initiation and I’m coming over all Big Kev. I bought a new suit on saturday with guidance as per usual from the lovely R – and we managed to find something decent without forking out a bucketload of money. I picked up a good wing tip collar shirt at the same time, so now I’m a lot more confident of looking smart enough, rather than having to wear the sports jacket. Not to mention that the suit jacket will be a lot cooler, which should help
So this time next week I’ll be a Freemason. The year of the Shiny Nate rolls on…
Threshermans
We went to Threshermans for breakfast yesterday, and had a bunch of close friends come down for the morning – it was all very nice. I got lots of snuggles from the muppet, and just generally had a lovely time celebrating my birthday. Besides which the coffee and breakfast there are brilliant
Derek from work came down as well which was nice, and I got to meet his girlfriend Marie, who’s lovely. Only problem was Miss Trish decided to tell them things she shouldn’t grrr – corrupting my team members! Women.
I got a nice bottle of dessert wine, a rubber stamp that says “Complete and utter BULLSHIT” which I’m taking to work, a borders voucher and some cash. My good friend “Tinkerbell” the space fairy managed somehow to completely forget about the morning, but we caught up with him in town He very thoughtfully bought me a toy lightsaber, that makes swishing and vooming sounds like a real lightsaber. I’m so never growing up…
Happy Birthday to me!
Yup. It’s my birthday – yay for Nate. Had a lovely morning – the muppet came in while I was in bed and brought me a birthday card he’d spent days making, with photos of he and I in it, and loads of hugs and kisses etc all over it. I was well chuffed – probably the best birthday card I’ve ever seen I also scored a bunch of his very best artwork from school and stuff he’d coloured in just for me. Being Dad rocks.
R also got me a fantastic Golden Dawn book, which I’ll be getting stuck into, and I finally got me a Ninja Turtle! Although I was initially a bit taken aback, because somewhere along the way Michaelangelo has acquired a space suit. It would appear the Turtles have hit space – who woulda thought.