The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.

Graduates, Stay Young:

by Dessa Rodeffer, Quill Publisher-Owner

12 May 2004

Sunday, a series of graduations began in our area as Monmouth College again held their Commencement exercises on Mothers Day. Our niece Shalyn Shirey was among them. It was the first of many that will continue into June. Students are graduating who have matured in their thinking as well as in their years. Sunday morning, our son Matt, 22, graduates from Quincy University. Later Sunday, seniors at Southern High School will graduate including our faithful employee Sara Ford. The educating and aging will only accelerate. To help gracefully mature, I'll share words from a poster I have:

YOUTH VS. AGE: "Youth is not entirely a time of life-it is a state of mind. It is not wholly a matter of ripe cheeks, red lips, or supple knees. It is a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of emotions. Nobody grows old by simply living a number of years. People grow old by deserting their ideals. You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair. In a central place of every heart, there is a recording chamber; so long as it receives of beauty, hope, cheer and courage, so long are you young. When the wires are all down and your heart is covered with the snows of pessimism and the ice of cynicism, then, and only then, are you grown old!"-

U.S. Army General Douglas MacArthur, on the occasion of his 75th birthday. 9/9/58