Independence, Kansas York Rite

Can we reflect like that which taught in our degrees. Honor is seen by what we say and do outside our meetings.

“At first, I thought the man was insane."

What this stranger did in a public restroom completely changed my understanding of honor.

I was standing in a public restroom next to a man in a dark suit.
Clean shoes. Expensive watch. Perfect posture.
The kind of man who looked like he had important meetings waiting for him.

At first glance, he seemed like someone who would never waste a second on anything unnecessary.

After washing his hands, I expected him to leave immediately.

But he didn’t.

Instead, he looked around quietly for a moment.

Then he started cleaning the sink.

He wiped away the water stains around the faucet.
Picked paper towels up from the floor.
Used soap to clean parts of the counter that were already dirty before we even arrived.

Slowly. Carefully. Almost respectfully.

Not like an employee.
Not like someone trying to impress others.
More like a man following a personal principle.

There was nobody else in the room except me.

No cameras.
No audience.
No reason to do any of it.

And somehow, that made it even more powerful.

I kept watching him, trying to understand why a man dressed like that would care so much about a public restroom he would probably never see again.

Finally, I asked him:

“Why are you doing this?”

He looked at me for a second, still holding the paper towels in his hand, and calmly replied:

“Because I believe a person should leave every place a little better than they found it.”

That sentence stayed with me.

Because in a world where most people ask what they can take…
very few still think about what they leave behind.

And in that exact moment, I understood something:

True honor is not shown by what a man owns.
But by what he leaves behind.

Maybe true greatness begins exactly where nobody is watching.

When was the last time you left a place better than you found it?

It was a good time at Ottawa Lodge No. 18! M∴W∴ Dave Hendricks, Grand Master, and Grand Senior Deacon, R∴W∴ Billy Brandtonies, chatted with the Worshipful Master, Kevin Reed, and R∴W∴ Don Sellers and helped develop a plan so that this small lodge can succeed.

Others in attendance were R∴W∴ Tom Brandtonies - DDGM 5A, R∴W∴ Gerald Hardy - DDGM 6E, W∴ Danny Hendricks - Grand Pursuivant, and W∴ Jake Johnson - Grand Sword Bearer.

📸: Grand Sword Bearer

With Guild of Lodge Secretaries – I just got recognized as one of their top fans! 🎉 let's get busy sharing thoughts and ideas.

There's still time to join.

Are you a Master Mason?

Would you like to be a York Rite Mason?

The Grand York Rite of Kansas invites you to join the York Rite on Saturday, May 23, 2026, at 9:00 a.m. at Palmyra Lodge in Baldwin City, Kansas.

All interested Master Masons will need to fill out a petition and pay the necessary fees. The petition can be downloaded at: https://uploads.documents.cimpress.io/v1/uploads/b3fe261a-88c5-49ee-b031-c8cae59db669~110/original?tenant=vbu-digital

A list of local York Rite bodies can be found at https://www.kansasyorkrite.org/kansas-york-rite-bodies or visit the Grand York Rite of Kansas website (www.kansasyorkrite.org) for more information.

Sir Knight Gary Strout, Eminent Grand Prelate of the Grand Commandery of Knights Templar of Kansas, has published his message for Ascension Day.

Manon Szczepan, PhD, from Harvard Medical School Awarded $90,000 Knights Templar Eye Foundation Grant for Retinopathy of Prematurity Research — Knights Templar Eye Foundation Dr. Szczepan will test this hypothesis using genetically modified mouse lines and disease models with two aims: (1) to determine whether glial c-Fos controls the development of abnormal retinal neovascularization in an ROP mouse model; and (2) to determine what controls glial activation and glia med