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aggiesal

(10,990 posts)
Sat Jun 20, 2026, 02:16 PM 1 hr ago

On this day, the eve of Father's Day, I'd like to post the poem ''IF''' by Rudyard Kipling that I find appropriate ...

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!

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