Ian Love-Jones is an educator, voiceover talent and the current Chaplain at Peninsula #128 in Portland Oregon. He is also author of Three Links Hijinks: An Odd Fellow’s Joke Book.
Members of our Order have likely read two explanations for why we are called Odd Fellows. One tale mentions that we are made up of a diversity of odd trades, and by extension a diversity of knowledge, skills, and abilities.
Another story says that our rejecting the myth of rugged individualism and banding together to relieve each other’s distress, make us an oddity. Without access to time travel we may never know exactly how much of each first-thought factored into the definition. I’d like to think that both thoughts have some measure of truth to them.
Our Order was formed at a time when those in power said: look to me for leadership and protection, but kept the laborers who carried society wanting for the basic dignities of relief from distress. Our Order was also formed at a time when common folk recognized their capacity to design and maintain support systems for one another, rather than simply hoping and waiting for better.
Like many stories, ours is not a perfect one. But it still holds a great deal which might inspire. Our story as Odd Fellows is a story of common people discovering their power to support and uplift one another through a unified sense community, and a duty to take positive action. When I say a unified community I don’t mean homogeneous. While we are unified in our mission, we bring with us an array of varied life stories, skills, and abilities.
We visit the sick, bury the dead, relieve the distressed, educate the orphan, and elevate character. That is not one task requiring one single skill, but several tasks requiring many different skills. When it comes to groups with many objectives, those that see the greatest success are rarely those where everyone is an expert in exactly the same thing.
A hospital without plumbers would have trouble staying sterile. An army without cooks wouldn’t have the energy to fight for long. And a governing body without a range of lived experiences would be disconnected from the true needs of the people. It takes all kinds. And society’s odds and ends, working together in concert, can be the beginning of beautiful things.
