I was prepared to take my Master Mason proficiency last April. It was only two weeks after I was raised, but what's expected today isn't much. I wore my presentation apron and dressed nicely, but I didn't realize I should have mentioned it during the meeting. After all, the SW and I practiced before the meeting. Everyone was telling me that I didn't have to do it, so I dropped it.
Then, last night, one of our members presented his opinion about a resolution before the Grand Lodge and got sidetracked: he pointed out that it was too easy to demonstrate proficiency. I agreed with that point, though I disagreed about the resolution.
After the meeting the SW apologized for forgetting again, then pointed out that I had to share responsibility for remembering to mention it when the WM asks for any additional business. That got mixed in with the discussion of it being too easy... and some how -- I really don't know how this happened -- I "volunteered" to demonstrate my proficiency the hard way.
Now everyone's all excited. I know how much there is to learn, so I told them I might not be ready in June. Still, I have a one-letter-key monitor to help me learn, and several volunteers to help practice.
Oh, last night I was the tyler; one member came late, and an initiate showed up during the meeting so I actually had something to do. What's a cowan?
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A "cowan" is a folk-mason, someone who can pile stones to build a field wall, but is not trained to square stones, adjust them with the working tools, or cement them with mortar. In speculative Masonry, it is someone who is not regularly initiated, but who has learned some signs and tokens from books and tries to fake his way into a lodge.
Carl Claudy says, "The cowan was an ignorant Mason who laid stones together without mortar or piled rough stone from the field into a wall without working them square and true. He was a Mason without the word, with no reputation; the Apprentice who tried to masquerade as a Master."
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