Rudyard Kipling is one of my favorite poets, and I especially like one of his poems – the one that deals with the little word, “if.” It is full of heroism and challenge, with common sense mixed with daring, pragmatism, and spirituality. The only fault I find with it is that it refers only to the male of the species. May I share it here and dedicate it to my female readers…you, too, of course, guys. So please read below about “IF,” a little word but a truly good one
If you can keep your head while all about you,
Others are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet, don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream and not make dreams your master;
If you can think, but not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken
And stoop and build them back with worn-out tools;
If you can make a heap of all your winnings,
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your lost
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And hold on so when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them, “Hold on,”
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch;
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run –
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!
Or equally as good, if not better, “You’ll be your best, dear one! This article would have been more suitable for the week of Mother’s Day. Forgive me, ladies. Thanks for all you mean to us.
