Page 31 - 1917 February - To Dragma

130 TO DRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI
band, the woman herself. This is in strictly climactic order. To my
mind, the "obstacles" are like the ghosts seen by the credulous. They
are not tangible objects from which the light rays go to the eyes
of the person seeing, but, on the contrary, originate in the mind of
the person and are projected out into space, transforming familiar
objects into bugbears. The house, the children, the husband, are all
admirable things; what makes them barriers is entirely in the
woman's own mind. She is the one obstacle.
To consider the house first; there are some women so afraid that
the rooms will not be religiously swept and dusted, the food properly
cooked, that they think they cannot leave. Now, i f the woman will
only realize that perhaps there are other and better ways of doing
all these things than she has used, and that possibly in the gather-
ing of sister housewives she may hear of them, to her advantage, she
can consider it her duty to go and gain in efficiency. Only the other
day at an alumna; meeting, I heard of more patented kitchen uten-
sils than I fancied were made. Do you know that there are bread-
boxes, cake-boxes, turkey-roasters without any corners nor seams to
be washed out, that they are all curved, outside and inside? Do
you know that all kitchens should have utensils and materials so
arranged that the worker will never have to stoop? Do you know
that sheets, pillow-cases, towels, face cloths, tablecloths, napkins,
should be numbered and used in rotation, if you wish them to wear
evenly and last longer? Do I hear some skeptical soul say, "But
then they'll all wear out at once and you'll be stranded." I said
that, too, but that is not "theory"!
The children are usually what the mother makes them. They may
be helpless little mites who cannot dress themselves nor wash their
faces properly, or they may be self-reliant little souls who not only
can button their own shoes but can help on small sister's buttons,
and can wash ears really clean and not depend on the towel to
remove the dirt. They have not been accustomed to howl when their
mother has gone out for a while, so it doesn't occur to them to be a
hindrance to whoever has them in charge. Grandmother is always
glad to have them for a week's visit; aunts are equally available.
I f the mother does not want to send her offspring a-visiting, she
can get some reliable person to stay in the home. I wonder i f she
grasps the fact that she will hear of other children, other methods
of feeding, dressing, discipline. Some of these may help her a good
deal; at any rate, they will make her think. The best way to get
a sane grasp of anything that threatens to become a problem is to
get away from it f o r a while and get a new viewpoint.
/ I can only wish that every active as well as every national officer
TO DRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI 131
When it comes to the husband I can hear at least twenty women
I know exclaim, "But no two husbands are alike; homes may be,
children may be, but you cannot lay down any rule on husbands."
Having only one of my own, I do not profess to do so. But a human
husband is very like any human being; and there is no rhyme nor
reason for regarding him as otherwise. Any human who sees a pleas-
ure coming to another, is anxious for that other to have it and enjoy it,
even at the cost of some inconvenience. Your husband lived before
he married you, he will survive a week without you. He ate at
restaurants when he was a bachelor, he had his clothes pressed and
mended without consulting you, he managed to have clean handker-
chiefs and collars without your personal superintendence. He
arranged his affairs with his friends, attended theatres, church, per-
haps, read his magazines and papers, carried on his business engage-
ments without you. And, oh! dear lady, i f it is bothering you, he
won't f a l l in love with the fat lady next door, he really won't.
So you see, your duty lies conventionwards. Forget the house,
forget the children, forget your husband for a week, or if you object
to forgetting them, just try in that week to get all the new ideas,
new hopes, new youth that you can carry back to them. Get out
of your environment, get out of yourself, be a girl again with the
other girls, and, on your return, you will find your home looking
better to you, your children much more attractive, your husband the
most desirable person in the world. And, listen, you will look a
whole lot better to them!
L I L L I A N M A C Q U I L L I N MCCAUSLAND, Grand Treasurer.
T H E CONVENTION AND T H E OFFICERS
First of all Convention means to the officers of the fraternity an
opportunity to meet one another, and to talk over plans and policies
for the bigger life of'the fraternity. This year especially Conven-
tion should mean much to every one of us, when we realize what a
growth and expansion of our fraternity there has been in the last
twenty years from a little band of four friends into a national organi-
zation of over 1800 members. The opportunity to hear something
of the history of those years and to meet some of our Founders,
should be, indeed, a magnet to draw us to Lynchburg this June. To
me personally, Convention means the deepening of our fraternity ties
and ideals, the opportunity of developing our unity of purpose and
spirit, the coming together of sisters interested i n the same purposes
and ideals, with the idea constantly before them of making Alpha
Omicron Pi stand for what is highest and best. As a national officer