Photo above © Musée Carnavalet Paris
This open question is addressed not only to our Companion Society, but to every member who composes it.
Inseparable from the hand and the profession, the spirit of the Companion is expressed by values, a desire to always do better, travel or « Tour de France »customs, symbols, rites and legends.
But what are the Companion's values?
A Society in Society
Since the French Revolution, the pediment of our town halls has displayed the Republican triptych Freedom – Equality – Fraternity. These values have never since been questioned.
The Companion, prior to the Revolution, conveyed equally strong values: Experience, Patience, Generosity, and without forgetting: Trust, Sharing, Solidarity.
True « Company » In society, the Companion has undergone many changes and seen around it societal and technical revolutions. The Companion's approach is complex: tension between the past and the future, it is the vector of a transmission that it must not distort while adapting its discourse in order to be received in every new era.
Time and availability
Time is the fundamental axis around which the Companion issues take place. The Companion is driving this notion of time.
Time to acquire a gesture and the culture of the trade. The time to know each other and develop the virtues necessary to become a Companion. Another notion of time characterizes our approach, that of sacred time in a place limited to our meeting to « to raise our hearts to work, the noblest of Companion virtues. »
The disruption and loss of the traditional landmarks of our society make understanding of our vocation more difficult for some of the uneducated youth. The evolution of the being is a condition sine qua no of our approach through knowledge-being, the relationship to each other in the learning of fraternity.
It is therefore not fair to know « Do ». Far from appearance and superficiality, characteristic of our time, the individuals walking in Companion are whole and in search of higher values requiring time. Investment time for the trade, for society. Time available for brothers and young people...
The Companion says: « Learn and improve in his trade, and then transmit and teach the same trade. »
Through the young people who are the future of our institution, the values of transmission and sharing are only strengthening. Transmit the love of work, of the overtaking of oneself so just to be happy for having accomplished what we, Compagnie, call « work well done ».
Perseverance, listening and realization
Everything is moving fast and has to go faster. Where machines do the work in our place, time to do the same job properly « by hand » is an economic challenge or becomes the subject of an elitist market.
From now on, knowing your profession and being passionate is no longer enough. It is about selling it well in order to live it, competed with machinery or substitution techniques. The young generation that was born in this instant culture risks being repelled in part by the temporality of this Companion where years are needed to perfect itself.
Man is not made to live alone. One in four French citizens is part of one or more associations. The need to come together to work on a particular topic seems reassuring. Faced with the problems of epidemics, natural disasters, immigration, poverty, our society responds with solidarity, mutual aid and tolerance. Most of the time, this associative life can continue. However, many associations end up breathing out and disappearing over time. With the Companion, the stake is different because each century feeds the next. Progress is constant.
Let's take an Aspirant who comes looking for an acquaintance. Not only will he advance in his field of competence as a trade, but he will find much more than that. Accompanied by his sponsor, the technical and human knowledge will be increased to the maximum in order to make him an accomplished man: perseverance, listening, realization.
The occupation, the major axis of our life
The positive values of the Companions are expressed through a beautiful, solid, durable work, suitable with products and materials of quality for a well thought and executed work in a reasonable time.
The maintenance of these values is due to exceptional expertise in knowledge of the profession and its ethics, in knowledge of materials, economic context, living beings. The whole linked to a highly elaborate ethic with respect for life, existence and the world associated with a future project for humanity.
Today, the virtual and artificial intelligence: between operational and abstract, explaining the meaning of true artisanal production will prove to be fundamental.
Sharing, patience, transmission
The arrival of the women in the Companion was heated but necessary. Sharing, patience, transmission: these values sum up this passage required for the future of our institutions.
Have you noticed that the name given to the Companions has in the vast majority of « Companions » ?
Here, Gascon LibertyThere, Angoumois Wisdom, and finally Maubeugeois the Fraternity... These names have passed through times, societies, time. But they remain the own of each individual. This name, they make it through their know-how and know-how.
Today, we all have a duty to live our commitment daily. Moving from shadow to light: this is at stake in our Companion Society. To carry these values is to validate what has been, is and will be the universal Companion around square and compass.
So, are the Companion's values still relevant? We answer without fail: « More than ever! »
The Companions of the Cayenne of Angoulême
