Rosicrucian Writings Online

The Imperator's Monthly Message

 [By H. Spencer Lewis]
 
[From The Mystic Triangle May 1928]
 
 
Visitors to the State of California usually comment very enthusiastically about the wonderful school buildings located in even the remote rural districts. They are always large, exceedingly artistic, and with wide lawns, attractive court yards with beautiful flowers and shrubbery. It would seem that not only the state and city officials, but the parents and the children vie with each other in planning and maintaining these beautiful schools.
 
Why? That is the question which is asked by those who study the situation. Why do the parents and the children seem to take more interest in these matters in California than in any other part of the country? We are not always sure of the best answer to give to this question, but we have found one answer that certainly casts some light upon the mental attitude of the children.
 
Here in San Jose, where we are located, the schools are notably modern and exceptionally large and beautiful. One of them, known as the Hester School, occupies a whole city block facing the main highway, and it is not a High School. The principal who used to be in charge passed away a few years ago and there now hangs in the main lobby a portrait of him put there by appreciative parents who still pay homage to him.
 
Beneath the picture there is a table and upon it a large vase. Every morning before school commences some children place fresh flowers in water in that vase. Never a day passes, even on Saturdays and Sundays when there are no sessions, but that some child, or several of them, rush to that shrine to be the first to place flowers there.
 
"For dear old Mr. Trace," is all they say, and they say it with a tenderness and a keen note of personal loss. That from children averaging eight to fourteen years of age!
 
When children can adore and pay reverent homage to a principal, a teacher, now passed out of their lives, they must have a real valuation of the service he has rendered as a teacher, and the friendship he offered as a guide and companion. With such appreciation for these two elements, is it any wonder that the children want, and the parents plan, better schools with picturesque and smiling surroundings?
 
It is the spirit of California that creates this attitude of mind, and when created in the lives of children it will last the whole life through.
 
How many of us remember our teachers of our childhood, our pastors, our guides, the many who have helped us in our youth? Have we a shrine to which we may go with living, smiling, fragrant blossoms? Appreciation is the mystic key that unlocks the door to Cosmic gifts. Let us all be like unto the children of the school in San Jose.
 
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