| FEBRUARY 3, 2025 -- Keeping with the Living a Connected Life and Grange Strong focus, we ask this month ‘Did you Grange Today?”
Do you know what it means to Grange? Does your Grange, Grange?
There are so many ways we are instructed on how to Grange, the Grange way. The most impactful, in our opinion, is the Granges Motto, “In essentials Unity, in non- essential Liberty and in ALL thing Charity.”
What does this mean, to us, the authors, it means:
In essentials UNITY:
Let us be unified on the essential things, the core of truth in our union with ourselves, our family and friends, our community, and our Grange. But especially those who are in need, physically, mentally, emotionally and economically. What do we need in our life, our home, our community, state and nation? How do we provide for ourselves and our neighbors to make a stronger community? How do we advocate for those who cannot? How do we GRANGE?
In non-essentials LIBERTY:
Non-essential, not the unimportant, but those things that if lacking do not prevent our unity, this calls for liberty so that all might follow their consciences. Let us not judge, nor be judged, but be understanding of others’ ideas and perspectives. We have strength in numbers, we have many from varied social, economic, cultural and educational backgrounds. We cannot focus on “getting our way” we must focus on what is best for our Grange, our members, our community. That will mean listening to others’ ideas and perspectives and trying new things. By not doing this necessarily the way you’d do it can build greater camaraderie and respect and make everyone feel valued, hence, inclusion.
In all things, CHARITY:
In all things, however, there must be Charity. In this case, charity can also be interpreted as love, respect, understanding and empathy. Let’s do things for the right reasons. Let set ourselves up for success, all the time. Let’s do them selflessly, for the only goal being a stronger community.
Do you as members Grange every day? Does your Grange, Grange every day? We challenge every Grange to have an open discussion on how they Grange and how they will Grange in the future. There are a few Granges in Connecticut that are taking in larger numbers of new members, are we going to encourage them to Grange? I can assure you they will not Grange the same way you Grange, who’s right in that instance? How will you handle it? Well, we already answered that question, didn’t we? The answer is simple, you will lead a CONNECTED LIFE while always remembering our Motto:
In essential, UNITY, in non- essentials, LIBERTY and in all things CHARITY.
|
