Alan Campbell (09/11/2011)
Hobby: An activity or interest pursued outside one's regular occupation and engaged in primarily for pleasure.
No matter how much you like it or it connects with you, it does not pay the bills, so it's not work.
I don't say the following in anyway to boast as there are brothers out there who do far more than me but i spent the 1st 14 years of my journey in the craft going to at least 1 meeting a week, sometimes 2 meetings, when time allowed, at this moment in my life i am taking a small step backwards to concentrate on other parts of the ritual and i am also not relying on sister, mother, sister in law etc. to look after the kids(well not as much as i was) to ensure i can get to meetings, i am quite happy missing a meeting and going the following night to another lodge if my wife is working. I could not do this in my occupation, i couldn't do this with my family. So it is a hobby, yes a very meaningful one but still a hobby.
I think that is an excellent post. It all boils down to semantics as people can become far too exercised feeling that describing Freemasonry as a hobby in some way belittles it. There are many description of "hobby" and the one quoted by Alan fits the circumstances very well.
I also agree with Roy L in that Freemasonry does "become a state of mind" providing, amongst other things, great food for thought. At the end of the day we each probably take slightly different things from it - it is after all very much a personal journey.
S & F
David
