IF

I saw this late Sunday evening and it inspired me all week so I thought I would share it with all of you.   There is something special about the classics:

"IF" by Rudyard Kipling

"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,

And make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk to 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 or disaster

And treat these 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 thing you gave your life to broken,

And stoop to build 'em up with worn out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of a 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 to 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!"