11 - Construction
We wanted to take this months Interlude as an opportunity to touch on the very foundational First Keystone: Strive to be efficient, competent, and autonomous. Many people mention that this one sounds simple at first, but gets a bit more difficult to understand the more you think about it. Let’s break it down into what the Paraclete intended, step by step.
Efficiency - a technical approach to this term calls for the maximum amount of productivity with a minimum of wasted effort. If everyone gets $20 for groceries, the person who brings back the most food would be the efficient one. If a group is given a task of reorganizing a closet, the person who finishes first would be efficient. Of course we assume folks are not cheating, and that the outcomes are actually desirable (bringing back $20 worth of oats may be a big quantity, but it won’t a happy household make). The key here is to live your life without wasting energy, or time, or money. Your effort and your gifts are precious, and should be used to maximum effect - when they are wasted, the loss is felt by many. Not just you, for having wasted it, but also those who you could have helped instead of having wasted it. This is why, while some say cleanliness is next to godliness, we hold that efficiency is next to divinity. This brings us closer to our ideal selves at the most expedient rate - something we should all strive for.
Competence is having the ability, knowledge or skill to successfully complete a task or achieve a goal. Our lives are full of tasks, big and small, that we have to do every day. We’ve all become very adept at brushing our teeth or getting dressed (though perhaps our style may need some work). Usually, everyone starts out as being somewhat incompetent at a task. Practice and perseverance (both of which take effort) is how we each climb out of the hole, and cross over from incompetence to competence. This is an important evolution - think of a time you’ve worked with your colleagues, and may have thought to yourself that some belonged in one camp over the other. You can surely remember the feelings associated with each! This is why we strive for competence - we want to inspire positive feelings in others, and be a useful contributor to the team - and ultimately, to our communities and society, as Paraclism teaches us.
Autonomy refers to the right of self-governing, but more importantly to an independence and ability to stand on your own and succeed at charting your own course in life. When we are born, we are under the care of our loved ones, and we certainly lack the ability to be autonomous, let alone the skills to fend for ourselves. As we grow in size and spirit, we learn more and that knowledge enables us to spread our wings and fly. We have grown beyond our helpless state, and we are able to help ourselves, and help others. Remember that autonomy does not mean never accepting help, or being too proud to reach out to others. It means being a pillar, insofar as you are able, and offering that steady brace to others.
Improving the Temple and our community is done by bettering ourselves. We are all building blocks, and only together do we stack up to form our great edifice. Now imagine that the First Keystone speaks to what sort of blocks we are made from, our personal qualities. Those who are inefficient, incompetent, and not fully autonomous can be considered as made from sand. Those who are working on those attributes and have achieved some level of mastery, cement. You can likely tell that, albeit packed tightly together, the sand does not make a great building material. If your building has only a few cement blocks, and a majority of sand blocks… no matter how tight you pack the sand, that building will crumble. The more cement blocks you add, the sturdier and more resilient that structure becomes - this is our goal.
One important thing that some folks might not know - sand and cement are not that far from one another. In fact, sand is a key component in cement, and makes it much more binding, much stronger. This is all to say that, everyone can grow in strength, go from sand to cement. It only takes the will, the effort, and the faith. Put your faith in Paraclism, and you will grow, and become that pillar you need. You will have the strength to stand strong, and be a pillar for your friends, family and community.
