"If the road we take seems obscured by dust grant us skill and grace to pave it with stars ...."

Today those lines seem to mean something special, I think. For there are few in all the world during this time who do not find the road obscured by dust.

To us, in Beta Sigma Phi, it seems to me has been given the means to achieve that skill which will help us to clear the road for ourselves and those with whom we come in contact. We are given the opportunity to study and to learn to use those ways of life which can truly lift the dust from any road we take and to pave it with stars. For with what better materials can any way of life be paved than with the Arts, and the knowledge of those Arts -- painting, sculpture, poetry. prose, the drama and music. With a thorough knowledge of these any life can be beautiful.

One can be lifted above the mere commonplace in life by the study of a beautiful painting. One can forget for a few hours the sordidness of some of the world, by listening to a truly great musical program. One can escape one's own pressing problems for awhile in reading a literary masterpiece. One can do these things if she can appreciate the arts and through the cultural programs of Beta Sigma Phi we are given the opportunity to learn to appreciate these things.

Not only can the Arts help us to pave the road with stars, but also the friends we gain help us to find our way along that road obscured by dust. To me, that has been the best of Beta Sigma Phi -- that finding such wonderful friends! For, in the darkest hours they are the ones who really help. And, so today when many of us are far from home and those we love, Beta Sigma Phi gives us friends -- even among strangers -- to help us along the road we take.

And, with the opportunities thus afforded, THEY -- my Sisters in Beta Sigma Phi -- shall even in the darkness of today, "transmute the dust into...stardust."