The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.

Graduates, Keep Learning

by Dessa Rodeffer
Quill Editor/Publisher

30 May 2001

The busy month of May should be no excuse, but I have had more than one say that it is right up there with Christmas.

This is the month of finals, graduations, Memorial Day, and if anything else happens, it is impossible to keep groceries bought and the grass mowed.

My heart goes out to those with sickness, lost loved ones, or someone in the hospital or going through treatments or suffering.

For many, May is graduation time, when kids come to the end of their beginning as Tyler Lutz put it in his Salutatorian address. They now can step out into world of possibilities.

I sometimes think of it as climbing a tall water slide that I experienced at Daytona Beach one year. I climbed to the top with my youngest, age 7, sat her on the mat down an unknown destination, and before I could sit down with her, she took off by herself.

All I could do was jump into the slide and try to catch up with her. But, of course, I never could. She was down under the water at the bottom before I could reach her. And, she was doing fine without me, but was I scared.

Our graduates are at the top of the slide and most will soon slip away without our guidance, taking in all the curves and bumps but by the time we catch up to check on them, we find they usually are doing fine and enjoying the ups and downs. They may be learning to even maneuver a few things we thought they never could.

We'll be amazed at how much better they do things than we did. They may go about it a completely different way, but some things will be done just as we did them.

They will learn to adjust as we once did when we were more flexible. Too many of us have become too rigid from our routines. We said we would never be like our parents, but more understanding, fun, and not so predictable?

On the radio the other day, I heard an author and his wife talk about a new book he had written on marriage. His mother had always insisted that ketchup be put into a dish and spooned out rather than allow any type of bottle on the table. He remembers saying that when he had his own place, he was going to have a bottle of ketchup right on his table.

Later he got married and his lovely wife's first meal was prepared. When he returned home for the meal she had a bottle of steak sauce on the table, and guess what, he wondered what remote place she had come from. Needless to say she was crushed and so the marriage began. Of course, parents do their best, but adjustments will have to be made over the littlest things.

My aunt says communication is the key to her almost fifty years of marriage and learning to say "I'm sorry."

If we have been successful hopefully by being a good example, they can put their pride in their back pocket and keep on learning. Once the learning stops, it's your "Memorial Day," for the end has come if you have nothing else to learn.

Maybe it is appropriate that graduation and Memorial Day be in the same month. We find hard work paid off, and we remember those who paved the way, kept learning, and serving to bring us where we are today.