A few days ago the anniversary of Robert E. Lee's birthday came and went. For most, that day is insignificant. It is just January 19th, a Thursday. However, for myself and for my fraternity brothers across the nation that date is one of the biggest dates in the whole year.
Robert E. Lee was never initiated into Kappa Alpha Order, but we established him as our spiritual founder because the young men who created our brotherhood based our values off of his character. As students at Washington College they personally interacted with Lee, and were enamored with how he carried himself. That is who they wanted our fraternity to emulate.
When we celebrate the life and death every January 19th together as KA's we do it at an event called Convivium. But there isn't just one nationwide Convivium; rather, Convivium's are held all over the nation as KA's gather to join in remembrance and brotherhood.
Our Convivium was for the northwest section of the state of Louisiana. There are ten KA chapters in the state, and we had close to half of those chapters show up. Now, I was the only member there who was still in any form of college. So, there was just a tiny age gap in between myself and the next youngest person. I think he was older than me by at least a decade. Anyways, even though I was the youngest there it was great to see brothers reconnect and catch up on each others life. I can't wait to be able to do the same decades down the road. Even though my chapter is relatively small, it matters not as our friendships are for life.
Robert E. Lee was a great man, and the values that he lived by are how we should govern ourselves day to day. Because of the values that he challenged our fraternity's founding fathers to live by, and the effect that these values have changed who we are as individuals is the reason that we gather as brothers to celebrate.
My chapter is 126 years old, one of the oldest in the nation, and since 1891 every brother that has come through our chapter has been challenged and has challenged their brothers to live by Lee's Code. Not many men can do it, as his way of life is not meant for many men. It is meant for gentleman. So, as I move on for the remainder of the year I will often reflect on what I relearned Thursday night.
That we must "conquer or die." That in everything we do, like Lee did, we must excel and try to be the very best. We cannot accept anything less. If we do we are doing ourselves a disservice. In the same motion in whatever we do we must remain gentleman and always show our reverence to God and to the Ladies. It is who we are. We are Southern Gentleman.
