Skip to main content

I was reminded of this today.... 

If 

BY RUDYARD KIPLING
(‘Brother Square-Toes’—Rewards and Fairies)
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!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Eagles Fight Song

Jon's Smoked Pork Recipe

This is not a carefully guarded secret. I use a 30" upright electric smoker set to 210 degrees Fahrenheit and hickory for pork. The flavors blend incredibly well. Hickory is also a flavor from the Ozark Mountains that I so love. Go to favorite meat market and buy as many pork shoulder as will fit with space on your grills and you need to serve, considering space for the smoke to circulate. Preheat smoker, again to 210. Allow Pork to achieve room temperature. Remove skin. Coat in mustard, a light dusting of ground cumin, and hot sauce. Place the pork in the smoker, adding the hickory shavings. Leave alone. I mean really, leave it alone, and wait 9-12 hours as the smoke blends with the flavors of the gradually heating pork. I check the smoker temperature several times, but I do not open the smoker. I replenish hickory shavings three times during the first 2 hours, but then not until I am pretty close to taking the pork off. When I take the pork off, I put it in t...
John the Baptist was locked up under Herod’s palace. It was not the massive European palace of the middle ages with tens of rooms and a view over a flowing river. It was smallish, stone and mud and fit well into the hillside along Jerusalem. The story goes that John was held in the jail under the palace. John was cared for by his disciples; those who hung on his every word. Many of whom probably thought John was the Messiah, the one who is to come. John sent his disciples to Jesus with one question. Are you the one? Are you, if you will, the one who was to save Israel, from itself? Jesus sent the disciples back, not by sending back with a simple yes, because that might have been questioned. Jesus said, Matthew 11:4-5 continues the dialogue “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.” To me it is simple. Jesus could very well of sai...