I don’t believe in coincidences.  I believe everything in my life has happened for a reason, and I do not believe it is a coincidence that the Worthy Grand Matron and I have both chosen the beehive or the honey bee as symbols for our year.  The beehive in Freemasonry represents cooperation and industry.  I chose the beehive in short because I believe, in a lot of ways, we as a fraternity have become uncooperative, complacent, and lazy, the opposite of what the beehive teaches.

In a previous article I described the drone bee and how it serves no purpose other than reproduction. It does not build the hive, defend the hive, or feed the hive.  In the fall of the year when food supplies are beginning to run short, the other bees in the colony kill the drones.  They are only willing to tolerate uselessness as long as resources are plentiful.

Today I would like to spend a few minutes describing the “queen” and her role in the colony.  For the first three or four days of her life, she spends her time traveling every square inch of the colony.  She is through her pheromones leaving her scent on the hive letting the others know who she is.  Days five through fourteen are spent on multiple mating flights.  This will be the only time she will ever leave the colony.  From this moment until her death she is working for her colony by laying as many as 10,000 eggs a day and the other bees are there to help her.   She has more to do with the survival of the colony than any other bee.  She is their leader.

The worker bees protect and defend her with their lives.  A honey bee, unlike a wasp or hornet, can only sting one time.  When it does, its stinger is torn from its body and the bee dies.  In the winter when the temperature drops, the other bees form a protective ball around their queen.  By beating their wings thousands of times a second, they generate enough heat to keep her from freezing.  They understand that without their queen, their leader, they also will die.

How do we treat our leaders? I don’t just mean when we are in their presence.  How do we treat them when they are not around?  Do we work to understand what they are trying to accomplish?  Do we spend our time and efforts working to help and protect our leaders?  Or do we gripe, complain, and work to undermine our leaders?

About three months before I was elected Grand Master, I noticed a change in the way our members began to treat me.  This change was very humbling.  However, I do not believe, because I am Grand Master, our fraternity is instantly filled with peace and harmony. 

I have witnessed, in my opinion, some of our greatest Grand Masters work for years for the betterment of our fraternity.  These Grand Master have been ostracized and criticized behind their backs.  Everywhere I went I would hear from other members how terrible these people were, how they were going to destroy our fraternity.  In the end under the leadership of other Grand Masters, we as a fraternity fully embraced most of what these men were trying to accomplish. How did we treat our leaders? 

These were some of my worst experiences as a Master Mason.  I witnessed our fraternity throw brotherly love out the window.  These experience opened my eyes to the division in our fraternity between the “establishment” and “antiestablishment”.  And the realization that if you support the Grand Lodge, the “establishment”, certain members of our fraternity the “antiestablishment”, or anti Grand Lodge, will never support you.

This year is not now, nor will it ever be about us.  It certainly is not about me.  Even though we are the leaders of our fraternities for now, what we do today will more than likely only bear fruit after we are gone.  Because in the end, it does not matter who gets the credit, as long as the right things are done for the right reasons.  We as our fraternities’ leaders, like the queen bee, are the ones responsible for guaranteeing that our fraternities are better tomorrow than they are today. And even if we are the ones being ostracized and criticized today, it is our jobs to always remember that today is only important if we use it to make tomorrow better. 

I ask all of you to get behind your leadership. Help them. Help us. After all whether we will admit it or not, we as your leaders are only here by the will of God. If you will work with us and support us, the future of our fraternities is truly bright. 

Jason Jefcoat, Grand Master
Grand Lodge of Mississippi