If

Author's Note: For my short story, go to the next post. This was a poem that I think is so true. It's about where our motives in life should be, and I thought it was worth sharing.

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, 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 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 'em up with wornout 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 breath 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! 

                                                          

                                                                  -Rudyard Kipling

The first time I read this poem I was kind of skimming through it when I realized how legit it was. I started over and began to read it slower, and every line seemed to speak right to me: 

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,

One of the biggest problems I have with the world today is that no one really seems to appreciate true hard work. I actually enjoy working hard; the satisfaction of a job well done is a more than adequate reward in itself. More people need to get up off their couches, unglue their eyes from the TV screen, and discover the fulfillment possessed in solid work.

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 wornout tools;
 

 Everyone knows that you can believe maybe twenty percent of what you hear in the hallways at school. Being mature enough to rise above that is a worthy goal in and of itself. It is all any of us can do to keep ourselves aloof from the temporal snares with which these hallways are rife, to abstain from the cooing persuasions of those who will try to draw us down to their level, to partake in activities that will bring naught but regret and grief.

And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;

Again, maturity. Having the maturity to take life, fair or not, like a man, and do what is needed to be done.

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise