My Brothers,
Happy Easter! Christ is Risen! I hope you had a memorable Lenten Season and a wonderful celebration of Easter with family and friends.
More good news - Washington beat Oregon in the membership competition! Please see State Deputy Kim’s article with a picture Oregon State Deputy Ray Prom wearing a WSU Cougars jersey! And, Washington crossed into the Circle of Honor, exceeding 100% of membership, too. What a great accomplishment and a testament to your hard work. SD Ray seems like a pretty good guy and I look forward to meeting him at the upcoming Convention.
Your State Officer team is hard at work getting ready for the upcoming 120th Annual Convention, and I am very excited to see so many of you in person this year. The hard work is worth it, but sometimes I feel that we could man a 24x7 support center - - State Secretary Greg often works past midnight, State Deputy Kim often sends email in the middle of the night, and others respond to emails early in the AM! This is a good group of men and I am honored to serve with them.
One last thought, and this was driven by a conversation with a good friend recently. Knights are passionate men, we have a deep love of the Lord and a strong passion to do his works here on earth. We must be careful because strong emotions can easily morph into something else that is detrimental. I know I have struggled with a temper most of my life, and I find that when I care very passionately about something, it is just a short step to getting angry when things don’t go the way I think they should. I do not think I am alone . . .
My caution to you, from my lived experience, is to always be aware that as strong passionate men, we can sometimes have that strong emotion morph into anger all too easily, and perhaps say things that we regret. My friend and I both have said things we regret as strong emotions took us off path. Always remember that everyone is doing the best that they know how to do, and be on guard for that moment when those strong good emotions can morph into anger or other unproductive emotions. Once words leave our mouth, we can’t take them back, no matter how much we might regret saying them. This was an epiphany for me and has helped me out several times already.
Thank you, as always, for your service to our Church and Order.
Vivat Jesus!