Senior Quotes

My baby child person is a Senior in high school this year, and last night he began looking in earnest for a great quotation to put under his yearbook picture. He asked me to do a little hunting, too, since he has this pesky life to live and I really don't, thus giving me more time to track one down, I suppose.

My family's big on mottoes, so this really shouldn't be as difficult as I've found it to be. My great-grandfather's was, "Surely it takes grit, grace, gumption, and greenbacks to succeed." (He had plenty of those first three, but was always just shy of the fourth, by the way. Presbyterian ministers with six daughters -- had they even had any income in those days -- wouldn't have know what disposable funds were.)

My father's is "Plan your work and work your plan."

My mother's is "He who loves his bed so well never, never, will excel." She changes hers pretty often, though, and you're just as likely to hear, "Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive." Or "It's just tacky for a woman to walk with a lit cigarette in her hand."

Yep, you can pretty much count on Mama to issue pith at every turn.

Anyway, I'm thinking the problem here is that what I see as being my son's defining quote probably won't be what he believes it to be.

What I know of his essence is that he is compassionate to a fault; that (with the exception of normal teenage angst) is a fundamentally happy, easy-going person who is comfortable in his own skin; that people who really matter in the big picture are drawn to his good humor.

He'd likely describe himself quite differently -- I don't know if any of us ever see ourselves accurately.

What I'd really like for him to use is this:

While great brilliance and intellect are to be admired they cannot dry one tear or mend a broken spirit. Only kindness can accomplish this. ~~ John M. Derscher
















But I have a feeling that, left to his own, it'll be:



Whatever.