GMMelanson

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ARTHUR H. MELANSON

ArthurMelanson1980.jpg

Deputy Grand Master, 1972
Grand Master, 1978-1980


TERM

1978 1979 1980

NOTES

CHARTERS GRANTED

ADDRESSES

From the March, 1970 Quarterly Communication: Moral Lesson, as Grand Chaplain:

"Brethren, I don't know how you react to current events, but I am about ready to give up reading my daily paper. It is full of one hopeless situation after another; even the comic page is no longer comical, the funnies no longer funny. A pall of gloom seems to touch almost everything. Another college president resigned last weekl Dr. Margaret Merry of Wheelock College became the 10th presideat in New England to resign since last fall. She resigned to make room for a successor, and I quote, 'with youth and vigor equal to the demands of the office.' I would not make a good college president. I am not ready to surrender the administration od the academic pursuit to those who are supposed to be pursuing the academic. There are other situations that concern me, too. Global unrest, war and seemingly imminent war. Global poverty, with the horsemen of hunger and disease still ranging over much of the world. The breakdown of morality as I know it. There are those who would throw the word responsibility out of our vocabulary. Persons need no longer be responsible to other persons or to society, they intimate. Brethren, I refuse to sell my integrity, my value standards, for a mess of pottage. I am increasingly concerned, also, about the drug scene.

"In the midst of this hopelessness there is yet a testimony of hope. Asked to say something about HOPE, Elizabeth Thomas wrote: 'I muse over the thin white scars on the inside of my wrists. My own testament to hopelessness. To a feeling of isolation utter and complete. To a feeling there was no one there but me, and I could no longer support myself out of my own strength. But they are scars. Why choose to live? HOPE is what I call it now.' As Masons we have a two.fold answer to the situation: The first is friendship and brotherly love. We are not alone. We belong to a Fraternity. We belong to each other. The second is found in the familiar words of the Master's lecture in the third degree. And this is a big 'But' - when we lookJorward the sprig of acacia found blooming. This is our symbol of Hope. From the very beginning of our Masonic journey, each of us affirmed our trust in God.

"In the play Man of La Mancha Aldonza asked Don Quixote why he does such ridiculous things. In answer, the following conversation ensues: Don Quixote replies, 'I hope to add some measure of grace to the world.' To which Aldonza says, 'The world's a dung-heap and we are maggots that crawl upon it.' 'My lady knows better in her heart.' 'What's in my heart will get me half way to Hell. And you, Señor Don Quixote - you are going to take such a beating.' 'Whether I win or lose does not matter.' 'What does?' 'only that I follow the quest.' Aldonza asks him what he means by that, and Don Quixote replies by singing the well-known theme song - THE QUEST:

To dream the impossible dream,
To fight the unbeatable foe,
To bear with unbearable sorrow,
To run where the brave dare not go.
To right the unrightable wrong,
To love, pure and chaste, from afar,
To try, when your arms are too weary,
To reach the unreachable star!
This is my Quest, to {ollow that star,
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far,
To fight for the right without question or pause,
To be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause !
And I know, if I'll only be true to this glorious quest,
That my heart will be peaceful and calm when I'm laid to my rest.
And the world will be better for this,
That one man, scorned and covered with scars,
Still strove, with his last ounce of courage,
To reach the unreachable stars!

May God help each of us to be that man!

RULINGS



Grand Masters