Posted on 03/14/2020 8:58:12 PM PDT by aquila48
IF...
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, dont deal in lies, Or being hated, dont give way to hating, And yet dont look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dreamand not make dreams your master; If you can thinkand 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 youve 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 Kingsnor 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 thats in it, Andwhich is moreyoull be a Man, my son!
(Excerpt) Read more at poetryfoundation.org ...
Anyway, I've read Kipling extensively. He's a great short story writer, but sadly I don't think many people have read his short stories.
The daughter of the Speaker of OUR House...”She’ll cut your head off and you won’t even know you are bleeding”. How poetic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Th4a9QhGng
Past Peak Civilization?
Don’t you have homes?
My dear parents did the same when I turned 18.
The problem is that if you remain calm, do not hoard, and wait until you really need those supplies, YOU WILL STARVE TO DEATH BECAUSE OF ALL THE GANNETS WHO ARE STRIPPING THE SUPERMARKET SHELVES.
I think the hysteria of this is quite spectacular.
Flu season/winter always is a time where certain demographics need to be extra careful.
When my kids were graduating as well as their friends I gave a nice brief case to each with a copy of this poem inside.
Other than the Bible I think it is one of the best collections of words to live by that there is for a man.
Not a fan of Boy Scouts anymore, tragically. Still, one of the other best creeds to live by is the 12 Scout Laws followed by the motto, slogan and oath.
Always liked this poem. When I worked at a Juvenile Detention Center I would have a contest of who could recite it from memory. Good fun winner got a candy bar.
Yes, the BBC used to hold an annual survey to find the [British] nation’s favourite poem. This regularly topped the list, so they stopped the survey...
No but we do panic very well
If you can keep your head while all about you are losing theirs, perhaps you have misread the situation.
Yes, thank you for posting.
Yep
Kind of ironic - we know that the Deep State and others use fear as a way to steer and control the people - we had the commie/nuke war threat until the Berlin Wall came down then it wasnt viable anymore and up pops Globull Warming, which has many in fear that were gonna destroy the Earth even as we do less harm than past generations and none of the data actually supports anything but the earths climate and Mother Nature do not now, and never did have a balance and even if they did, we have no idea of how to maintain one or fix things...all our efforts end up causing more harm....the coronavirus scare is no different - the panic-induced knee-jerking will cause more harm than the virus.
Folks who would be up in arms if the government decided to tell them they could not move freely are now begging that same government to lock them, and everyone else, down....Id wager if, after doing that, the story evolved they would also go meekly to barb-wire surrounded camps/tent cities because the latest info said thats the only way to stop it.
Even though we know that they use fear to guide and control us, so many cant see it through the red haze of insane panic....they not only welcome the government controls, they beg for them...
And the fear mongers will try to leverage it...
Reminds me of a saying, by Ben Franklin, that many FReepers, who are now acting insane, used to showcase:
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
Yes, but what about when the Gods of the Copybook Headings are coming for you?
:)
Exceptionally well said.
One living under fear and tyranny is worse than one having a thousand torturous deaths.
The thing is, seeing it all for what it really is and overcoming it, the world and everything in it, becomes no worthy prize at all.. nothing satisfies.. except.. eternal freedom and love.. and serving God.
I just reread that. No wonder the Left wanted to destroy the Boy Scouts by any means possible.
I’ve sentenced boys younger than you to the gas chamber...didn’t want to do it..felt I OWED it to them.
If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds worth of distance run
Sadly, it's something I fail at often.
I think you're mixing poets. That's John Donne, not Kipling. But good (if somewhat solemn) advice whoever the author.
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