Page 29 - 1917 February - To Dragma
P. 29
TO DRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI TO DRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI 127
THE TIME A CONVENTION SYMPOSIUM
In June tliere seems to be no care, T H E M E A N I N G OF CONVENTION
But happiness instead is there,
And Love and Joy are everywhere— The Editor of T o DRAGMA asks me to tell briefly what going to
Convention means to me. To say, and briefly, what going to Conven-
In June. tion brings me! Why, dear Editor, i f all the glad words of all the
tongues that can best denote joy, gratitude, inspiration, and uplift of
THE PLACE spirit had made their IMJWS to me and said, " A t your service!" I
could not find enough of them to answer truly what you ask me.
The roses nowhere bloom so white
As down in Old Virginia; I have been so blessed as never to have missed one Convention of
Alpha Omicron Pi, not one from the beginning. They lie upon the
The sunshine nowhere seems so bright bosom of my memory like a chain of golden beads; the little ones first,
As down in Obi Virginia. and then they grow fuller and larger. And not one bears scar or
blemish.
The birds .sing nowhere quite so sweet
And nowhere hearts so lightly beat, What does this talisman not mean to me!
For heaven and earth both seem to meet When I know that a Convention is nearing, I do not say to
myself, " I am going to it," as often as I say something better. ''They
Dozen in Old Virginia. are getting ready for Convention now!" I say, " A l l over the land
these dear youngsters, so different and yet so much alike, so gay and
There nowhere is a land so fair light and yet so deep and potent like the sea, so ardent and so eager
As down in Old Virginia; and so f u l l of promise, so quick with laughter but so very, very
earnest and determined, each group so sure it is right, yet so sweetly
So full of song, so free of care, willing to be led by the judgment of all, all bound by a high and
As down in Old Virginia. selfless devotion—they are getting ready now!"
And we believe that sunny land I remember that they will love one another at sight, indeed that
The Lord prepared for happy man they do already love one another "sight unseen." Think what that
Is built exactly on the plan generous loyalty means in a world so given to petty circumspections.
They come as sisters because they care for the same something, some-
As down in Old Virginia. thing serviceable and high, something abstract and yet more real than
life's commonplaces. Think what that must mean in a world unwil-
The days are never quite so long Journal. ling to admit that the most exalted is the most exact, the most self-
As down in Old Virginia, less, the most binding.
Nor quite so filled with happy song Knowing how young and merry and good they are, it stirs me to
know too that they come, modest and unselfconscious, hoping to be
As down in Old Virginia, made somehow better, hoping to broaden their youth and cheer and
And when my time has come to die, goodness into a usefulness beyond themselves.
Just take me back aiul let me lie
Close where the James goes rolling by, And then with my soul on its knees, I say humbly, "They are our
youth, O college-mates of long ago, friends of today, dear comrades
Down in Old Virginia. of forever, they are our youth saved for us, our youth at last come
—From Sigma Phi Epsilon true—even the things we wished to be and have not become, the
things that we were and have not fulfilled, the dreams we thought
mere dreams! They are not lost. Some beautiful Power holds them
like a growing plant in His hands. We have not watered or tended
a s we should, but our red roses are blooming!"
