IF by Rudyard Kipling

Written in earlier times when the use of pronouns was too one-sided, the message at that time, and the message for us today is the same.  

How do we keep calm when times are not calm?  How do we keep our faith when so many seem to have lost theirs?  How do we keep a steady focus when there is so much “noise” and “dust in the air?”  Indeed, how do we decide anything when those who claim honesty are the loudest, and they offer lies disguised as the truth?  In his poem IF, Rudyard Kipling offers a compass to help us find our way.

We should live by our own wits, seek the truth, count on the truth and live by the truth, have dreams and keep them close, know that there are trap-setters for fools — don’t be a fool, don’t worry about failure — be ready to start over, never quit — that you are human will sustain you, count on mankind — but count on yourself more, and fill every second of your life with all of your effort.

If you can keep your head when all about you   

    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—and not make thoughts your aim;   

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors 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 ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one 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 loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   

And so hold on 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!

LET’S ALL VOTE!

. . .  and as we do, remember that America’s best days aren’t behind her.   America’s best days are ahead of her.  They always have been and always will be.

Dave

Copyright © 2018 by David William Wygant. All rights reserved.