Half of our life is spent in getting competents to repair the botchwork of incompetents. No matter how well equipped you are, you are never safe in your job if you are contented to do today just what you did yesterday. Contented to think today what you thought yesterday. You must go on south to be safe. I used to know a violinist who would say, "If I were not a genius, I could not play so well with such little practice." The poor fellow did not know how poor a fiddler he really was. Well did Strickland Gillilan, America's great poet-humorist, say, "Egotism is the opiate that Nature administers to deaden the pains of mediocrity." This Is Our Best Day Just because our hair gets frosty or begins to rub off in spots, we are so prone to say, "I am aging rapidly." It pays to advertise. We always get results. See the one shrivel who goes around front-paging his age. Age is not years; age is grunts. We say, "I've seen my best days." And the undertaker goes and greases his buggy. He believes in "preparedness." Go on south! We have not seen our best days. This is the best day so far, and tomorrow is going to be better on south. We are only children in God's great kindergarten, playing with our A-B-C's. I do not utter that as a bit of sentiment, but as the great fundamental of our life. I hope the oldest in years sees that best. I hope he says, "I am just beginning. Just beginning to understand. Just beginning to know about life." We are not going on south to old age, we are going on south to eternal youth. It is the one who stops who "ages rapidly." Each day brings us a larger vision. Infinity, Eternity, Omnipotence, Omniscience are all on south. We have left nothing behind but the husks. I would not trade this moment for all the years before it. I have their footings at compound interest! They are dead. This is life. Birthdays and Headmarks Yesterday I had a birthday. I looked in the glass and communed with my features. I saw some gray hairs coming. Hurrah! You know what gray hairs are? Did you ever get a headmark in school? Gray hairs are silver headmarks in our education as we go on south. You children cheer up. Your black hair and auburn hair and the other first reader hair will pass and you'll get promoted as you go on south. Don't worry about gray hair or baldness. Only worry about the location of your gray hair or baldness. If they get on the inside of the head, worry. Do you know why corporations sometimes say they do not want to employ gray-headed men? They have found that so many of them have quit going on south and have gotten gray on the inside--or bald. These same corporations send out Pinkertons and pay any price for gray-headed men--gray on the outside and green on the inside. They are the most valuable, for they have the vision and wisdom of many years and the enthusiasm and "pep" and courage of youth. The preacher, the teacher--everyone who gets put on the retired list, retires himself. He quits going on south.