Er, actually opso you've got me guessing. I'll send on the prune e-mail for fear of sending something to the wrong person. I think I know who you are, but I really have helped out a lot of people over the last few years.
Flatus veteranus - there really are people in this world who don't look at every organisation and say 'what's in it for me?'. When I became a Freemason in 1984, at the age of 27 I didn't even think about retirement jobs nor any possible promotion (still waiting). I've joined many organisations and most of them have involved more giving than taking. That's not an odd thing to do.
opso seems to have hit it on the head about our charitable giving. We all give according to our means (and when we're broke we don't give at all). Why do we have to make a song and dance about what we do? Why can't we be private?
Some people may think that it is strange (juvenile) that a group of grown men come from different places, dress in uniform clothes they don't normally wear, perform a ritual to a set of rules and procedures laid down over time and then go out for a drink and a meal afterwards..... but then that's football players for you.
Perhaps if Freemasons performed their rituals in public there would be people travel to pay to watch the best performers. I'd like to think that I'm a particularly polished performer of ritual and might be likened to Beckham (only with a brain!).
Anyone prepared to pay me £25K a week to roll up my trouser leg?
