Technorati just pointed me to this site, which aggregrates obituaries posted in other blogs. It picked up my tribute to Alexandra Schencking from March.

Distressingly, this is one of only two references to Alexandra I’ve been able to find on the net — and the other one misspells her name. Eastern Star really needs to have more of a presence in Cyberspace, or we’ll never overcome the thought that it’s just a group for old people.

When I’ve created web sites in the past, I’ve pretty well had them handed to me. Nyx was my primary email machine at the time, Nancy Folsom had recommended WebHost4Life.com, and 1and1.com was running a free introductory offer. However, earlier tonight, I actually needed to put up a web page on a free host. The first one I thought of was GeoCities, but when I reviewed the features, I wasn’t completely happy. As I checked other free hosting sites, I realized that what I was really looking for was being able to control what I put up where. This meant one of two things: ftp access or FrontPage extensions. Since I use FP to manage a couple of my other sites, I’m comfortable with it, and eventually wound up with Tripod.

A little while later, GoldenRod22OES.tripod.com was live. Not bad for a short evening’s work.

Last week, Donna and I were installed as Worthy Matron and Patron of Golden Rod Chapter #22, Order of the Eastern Star. It’s our third time as presiding officers of our Chapters: one time for each Chapter. We previously served Tuscan #148 in Bangor, ME, and Unity #14 in Riverside, RI. This year, Donna chose the lighthouse as her emblem for the year, and I chose Babylon 5.

After I was installed, of course, I had to come up with something semi-intelligent to say.

Thank you, Worthy Matron.

And thank you, sisters and brothers, for the opportunity to serve you in the East this year. I hope to prove worthy of your trust — just because it’s my third time through doesn’t mean I’ve figured out what I’m doing yet.

When I chose Babylon 5 as my emblem for this year, I hadn’t fully considered what I was doing. However, this past week, I finally realized that it tied in very nicely with Donna’s theme. As Commander Jeffrey Sinclair says at the beginning of the first season episodes:

“The Babylon Project was a dream, given form. Its goal: to prevent another war, by creating a place where humans and aliens can work out their differences peacefully. It’s a port of call — home away from home — for diplomats, hustlers, entrepreneurs, and wanderers.”

In other words, a lighthouse. And the fact that it looks just like the charter has nothing to do with anything. (Note to readers: our charter is kept in a shiny metal tube.)

While I first became involved with Freemasonry, it was so that I could work more closely with Donna. As I became more involved, though, I embraced it for what it was: among many other things, a place where men of all faiths could address God together, without arguing about “which God” (a question I personally find meaningless). In one of the early episodes, there is a religious festival, where each of the races represented on Babylon 5 performs a ceremony representative of their dominant belief system. Sinclair agonizes all episode over what he, as the Earth representative, will do. At the end, he brings the other ambassadors into a room, and starts introducing the 250 people there — each of a different religious faith. In the Babylon 5 world, Earth is a world of tolerance and diversity. So may it be with us.

In closing, I would like to share a last quotation from Babylon 5.

“There is a greater darkness than the one we fight. It is the darkness of the soul that has lost its way.

The war we fight is not against powers and principalities — it is against chaos and despair. Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope, the death of dreams. Against this peril we can never surrender.

The future is all around us, waiting in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation.

No one knows the shape of that future, or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.”

Sisters and brothers, never surrender. Thank you.

The Grand Chapter of Washington, OES, lost one of its great ladies today. Alexandra Schencking passed away, a week after being honored for 50 years of service to Eastern Star.

Alexandra was a member of my chapter, Golden Rod #22 in Snohomish. She served as Worthy Matron of the chapter twice, and later was appointed a Deputy Instructor, helping chapters do the Ritual Work properly. Eventually, she was elected Worthy Grand Matron, the presiding officer for the entire state. Later she served General Grand Chapter, the international governing body, as a Committee Member. When first we met her some five years ago, she was everything you could want in a Past Grand Matron: lively, witty, etc.

Over the past year or so, she declined distressingly quickly. She looked sick when she came to Chapter, which was increasingly less frequent. At her honor night last week, she didn’t move out of her wheelchair, and spent most of the meeting bundled up to her neck in blankets. She told us that she could never get warm, and that she had had over 100 transfusions.

This morning, I got a message on my SPOT watch from Donna, telling me that Colleen, our secretary, had called her to say that Alexandra had passed away.

Godspeed, lovely lady.

Last night, we were set to go out the door to our Eastern Star meeting, when the phone rang. The babysitter, who had earlier confirmed that she was available, had to cancel because of illness. Thus, instead of sitting in the West for the Star meeting, I was sitting in a McDonald’s play area when someone walked in with his kids and a vest that said “Yukon” on it. After a second, I had to ask: “Is that a geographical reference or a SQL Server reference?” Turned out it was Mike Edwards, a Security PM for SQL Server 2005. We spent the rest of the dinner chatting about Yukon enhancements. He told me about things that made SQL Server security more compatible with Windows security, code signing for stored procedures, new XML data types, and other things.

I also pointed him to Aaron Margosis’ MakeMeAdmin tool. He couldn’t see the advantages of using it over RunAs, and I suppose I didn’t explain it very well. I still love using it, though….

From there, the conversation went on to comics, kids, and other topics, until I realized that it was 10 minutes before the girls’ bedtime, and we were 15 minutes from home. :-)

Here’s a list of the orders that met in the Bangor Masonic Temple before it burned down in January. Note the names at the end of the list. :-)

My mother-in-law just called to let us know that the Masonic Temple in Bangor, ME just burned. That’s where my Eastern Star home chapter, Tuscan #148, is based. When Donna joined Rainbow, Bangor Assembly met in that hall.

I know that the safe that the chapter records are in was never kept locked when I was there, so they’re probably a total loss. There’s also a lovely Square and Compasses that was carved out of a single piece of wood that I would be surprised to find it made it through.

Our thoughts are with you, sisters and brothers.

There’s a new webboard for members of the Order of the Eastern Star. You can find it at http://www.oesconnection.com.

About the Order of The Eastern Star Eastern Star is a social order comprised of persons with spiritual values but it is not a religion. Its appeal rests in the true beauty of the refreshing and character-building lessons that are so sincerely portrayed in its ritualistic work. A deep fraternal bond exists between its members. It is the wholesome relationship of sisterly and brotherly love brought about through high principles exemplified in our lives which makes us near and dear to each other.

Garrett Fitzgerald
Tuscan Chapter #148, Bangor, ME (Past Patron)
Unity Chapter #14, Riverside, RI (Past Patron)
Golden Rod Chapter #22, Snohomish, WA