The Secretary Series: The Recorder of Memory

This episode kicks off a focus on the Secretary role, reframing it from a purely administrative job to a deep psychological function: the ability to process experience by separating factual data from emotional charge.

High-Value Quotables

[01:12] "When you take the role of secretary, one of the things that you promise to do is to keep an accurate recording of the proceeds of a meeting... only those things that were fit to be recorded for posterity's sake." 
[01:41] "We're really talking about the ability to retain and recall information that is appropriate and useful and free of the emotional language that oftentimes comes with our own memories." 
[02:05] "The secretary is the recorder of memory... This is also a role that you're going to want to step into on a regular basis when you are trying to diagnose and troubleshoot something that may be going on in your world." 
[04:14] "Across the broad swath of your memories and your recollections... they are very likely recorded both with factual content, as you saw it at the time, as well as with emotional content, which you're going to benefit from removing." 

The Core Concept: Working with the "Inner Secretary"

The Secretary function represents our ability to record "what actually happened" in a way that remains useful for the future. By viewing the Secretary as a "recorder of memory," we can learn to strip away the "emotional content" that often distorts our past, allowing us to see facts clearly and troubleshoot our lives with greater objectivity.

Key Takeaways:

• Posterity and Fitness: The Secretary doesn't record everything; they record what is "fit to be recorded" for the sake of future use.
• Separating Facts from Feelings: Memories are often encoded in a high emotional state (frustration, agitation), which makes recalling the event trigger that same emotion.
• Troubleshooting the Past: By taking the emotional "charge" off of an event, you stop interpreting history through a lens of anger or helplessness.
• Fertile Territory: Working with your "inner secretary" is one of the best ways to navigate problems in your own mind or within a room.

Reflection Question:

If you stripped the "emotional charge" away from your most frustrating recent memory, what facts would remain on the page? 

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Creators and Guests

Host

Brian Mattocks

Host and Founder of A Mason's Work - a podcast designed to help you use symbolism to grow. He's been working in the craft for over a decade and served as WM, trustee, and sat in every appointed chair in a lodge - at least once :D

What is A Mason's Work?

In this show we discuss the practical applications of masonic symbolism and how the working tools can be used to better yourself, your family, your lodge, and your community. We help good freemasons become better men through honest self development. We talk quite a bit about mental health and men's issues related to emotional and intellectual growth as well.

[00:00] So, it's sick to assume that the founders of Freemasonry, whoever they might have been
[00:06] at any given point, remained organized as a, philosophically, conceptually, as a lodge.
[00:14] They used the working lodge as a concept, and in that way, every function of the lodge
[00:23] can be used to help navigate problems.
[00:27] And today, we're going to talk about one of the more exciting ways, bear with me, one
[00:34] of the more exciting ways that you can move the conversation forward inside your own mind
[00:41] or with people in the room, and that is taking the role of the secretary.
[00:48] I know, I know.
[00:50] Some of you at home are probably going, I've already been secretary a thousand years.
[00:55] Please, please make this stop.
[00:57] Or, you're going, I wouldn't touch that job with a long stick.
[01:02] And here is where the administrative work of secretary and the role of secretary differ.
[01:12] In my jurisdiction, when you take the role of secretary, one of the things that you promise
[01:17] to do is to keep an accurate recording of the proceeds of a meeting.
[01:22] Uh, what happened in the meeting?
[01:24] What does it look like?
[01:25] What went down?
[01:26] Um, and only those things that were fit to be recorded to, for posterity's sake, right?
[01:34] Um, and so when we look at this function for ourselves, um, we're really talking about the
[01:41] ability to retain and recall, uh, information that is appropriate and useful and free of,
[01:50] um, charge free of the emotional language, uh, that oftentimes comes with our own memories.
[01:57] Um, and so we can get into this sort of conceptual headspace and understand that the secretary is
[02:05] the recorder of memory.
[02:07] Uh, and as the recorder of memory, uh, you're going to want to keep an accurate understanding
[02:12] of what that is.
[02:13] This is also a role that you're going to want to step into on a regular basis when you are
[02:19] trying to diagnose and troubleshoot something that may be going on in your world.
[02:24] Uh, you know, relative to how you feel about it more often than not, the way we remember
[02:31] a thing or the way we record a thing is not free of emotional content.
[02:36] And because of that, um, some of the memories that we have, which, uh, we have been, may
[02:43] have been in a bad state when we recorded them, we may have been, uh, frustrated, agitated,
[02:48] abused, any of the above.
[02:50] Uh, and at the time we recorded those memories to recall them recalls the emotional content
[02:56] and not the factual content.
[02:58] And so this is where sort of working with your inner secretary as a function becomes absolutely
[03:06] one of the more fertile territories to kind of our roles to hang out in one of the best
[03:12] aprons to put on.
[03:13] Uh, so what does it mean to record something free of emotion or take the emotional content
[03:21] out of it more often than not, when you remember a thing, um, you have these, uh, feelings about
[03:28] what you've remembered.
[03:29] And by being able to recall those feelings, you can take them off of that event if you
[03:38] work to do so.
[03:40] So, uh, you might remember, uh, the last time you were really, really angry.
[03:47] And when you were really angry, um, it, you remember all of the details very likely that
[03:54] made you angry.
[03:55] Maybe it was the feeling of helplessness.
[03:58] Maybe it was the feeling, uh, that your needs weren't getting met, whatever those things
[04:02] are.
[04:03] But if you take those feelings off of what you remember, the event itself, uh, stops being
[04:09] interpreted with that emotional content, uh, or through that emotional content.
[04:14] And you can see things for what they are.
[04:16] Uh, the same thing's true across the broad swath of your memories and your recollections of
[04:23] all sorts that they are very likely recorded both with factual content, as you saw it at
[04:29] the time.
[04:31] Uh, and there's some important context there as well, as well as with emotional content,
[04:36] which you're going to, um, benefit from removing.
[04:40] Uh, this holds true for both positive and negative memories.
[04:46] Uh, and so we'll get into a little bit more of this when we start doing some of the behavior
[04:49] work or understanding what the secretary does in the role of managing your behavior.
[04:54] Um, and then, uh, from there, we'll move to the relationship level and then systemic,
[04:58] like we have been, uh, and then a little bit of a collection, uh, at the end of the week
[05:03] with, uh, what does that mean out in the real world?
[05:07] So stay tuned.
[05:08] We'll see you tomorrow.