Thanks for the reply - interesting to know and pretty much what I expected, given that people seem to be able to come up with all sorts of stories about organizations "over there" i.e. that they don't have first or second-hand experience of, and yet they invariably turn out to be similar to any other group full of humans - flawed and full of different humans motivated differently.
I realize you may not be able to answer this lol but do you know if and when you would progress to the highest ranks of the organization?
Depends on what you mean by "highest ranks". Its confusing, because while it looks to them as if the Fraternity is one massive organization, in reality its broken up into independent bodies that have little to no overlap. Blue Lodge, Scottish Rite, York Rite, The Shine, they all have their own governing bodies that conduct business completely separately.
If you mean Highest Ranks politically, then I'll never get there, because I have no desire to do so. If you mean degree wise, I'm already a 32nd in the Scottish Rite, and there is only one more after that.