Wednesday, July 20, 2016


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 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!



~ Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)





26 comments:

  1. What made you want to post this famous poem un the middle of a political convention week?

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    1. For the explanation you asked for, Trevor, please take a look at what I wrote to Silver Fiddle below. The answer to your question came as I was responding to his obsersvations.

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    1. We welcome Conversation
      But without Vituperation.
      If your aim is Vilification ––
      Other forms of Denigration ––
      Unfounded Accusation --
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  3. Some of the same people who were ranting and screaming a about Pastor Wright, Bill Ayers and Rashid Khalidi. re the same clowns who pretend to be shocked when Obama passed the insane Iran treaty.

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    1. And what is your point? Please retune, and explain it to us with greater clarity.

      Naturally those of us who strongly disapprove of the Rogues Gallery you mentioned would also be opposed to the Weak Sister attitude of the Treaty with Iran. I see no inconsistency there, so what IS your point?

      By the way I don't like to use the word "SHOCKED," when "DISGUSTED," is the true meaning of Conservative-Libertarian responses to Leftists and their weakening, inherently tyrannical, God-forsaken initiatives.

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    1. We welcome Conversation
      But without Vituperation.
      If your aim is Vilification ––
      Other forms of Denigration ––
      Unfounded Accusation --
      Determined Obfuscation ––
      Alienation with Self-Justification ––
      We WILL use COMMENT ERADICATION.


      On other words, if you want to post here, DON'T ACT LIKE A SNOT.

      Delete
  5. The same people who believe Mrs. trump plagiarized her speech are the people who believe Hillary is an "honest" candidate. And didn't have anything to do with Bengazhi.

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    1. An oversimplification, but one with which I basically agree.

      "The partisan, when he is engaged in a dispute, cares nothing about the rights of the question, but is anxious only to convince his hearers of his own assertions."

      ~ Socrates (470-399 B. C.)

      And that's been true since long before Socrates made the observation approximately 430 years before the birth of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

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  6. I like that poem. I have read it to my kids over the years. I also like your graphics.

    The pictures suggested a falling house, to my mind, which is appropriate in a way. The House of Conservatism was held up by rotting pillars akin to those in the "worldly success" picture, but alas, they couldn't even gain that.

    The progressive house is a rotten edifice as well, but free stuff for everybody is a much easier sell. Interesting what is going on a FOX News. Rupert Moloch's children are running the joint, and they are progressives, so it is probably a purge. FOX has been trending leftward to match the viewing audience. They will be in the mushy middle with CNN by next year, especially if Hillary wins.

    Conservatives are getting old and dying off. The nation will have to go through a few new generations of leftwing progressivism. Conservatism has lost, and rightly so. The salesmen and women were smirking smart-asses, pompous prigs, snake oil salesmen and hypocritical moralizers, and the delivered it all with a mean face and a hateful scorn for those they were lecturing.

    Conservatives lack the style and panache of breezy, pandering progressives trafficking in stylish vapidities. I cringed every time a conservative posted "Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments." Nobody talks like that today, and it reminds the average person that conservatives are monsters.

    Hillary has broken the law numerous times, destroyed large swathes of the Middle East and ushered in the Million Man Muslim March into Europe, but she is on her way to the presidency. republicans who heap scorn upon her but in the same breath defend what Bush-Cheney did are deaf and blind to their own folly.

    That is the world we live in, that is the nation we live in. The founders called it an experiment.

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    1. Probably yes to all that, BUT the object of presenting Kipling's poem with the schematic drawings is to indicate that in the final analysis the ONLY thing that matters is GOD, who is the embodiment and perfect expression of Truth, Love, Principle, Spirit, Character, intelligence, and Life, itself, all of which are synonymous and interchangeable from the metaphysical perspective.

      When we do our best to view things from the realm of Spirit, which is above that of the physical, all the things that irritate, agitate, frighten, depress and confuse lose their power over us and become subservient to the interests of Truth and Love.

      Like so many I've been feeling increasingly agitated and perplexed by the ceaseless machinations of those who hate God and work to wreak havoc, so they can move into the wreckage they've caused and TAKE OVER the REINS of POWER.

      What we forget is that the power they seek is only TEMPORAL –– transient, temporary, doomed to expire in time. Remember Psalm One: "... The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away ..."

      We human beings in our pursuit of Self-Justification have an unfortunate penchant for making Herculean efforts to deny simple truths, and make them appear unduly puzzling and complex.

      This, I think, may be the meaning of "Eating the Fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil."

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    2. I apologize for straying from the path, but I had to blurt out what your post called to my mind.

      I did catch your point, and you made it quite well. I have nothing to add. Human beings throughout history have kicked against the goads, built walls against eternal truths, and erected shibboleths and cults of worship to themselves and their temporal achievenments. All a misguided grasp at eternity.

      Calls to mind the Old Testament preacher telling us "Vanity, vanity, all is vanity."

      I also recall an apocryphal G.K. Chesterton quote (actually found the book The World, The Flesh, and Father Smith by Bruce Marshall (1945):

      “. . .the young man who rings the bell at the brothel is unconsciously looking for God.”

      http://www.chesterton.org/other-quotations/

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    3. No need for YOU to apologize, ever, my friend. ;-) It's frankly a joy to see evidence of actual thought and serious consideration of ideas and issues presented, instead of the usual knee-jerk, boilerplate user and rodomontade which loses its meaning and has no impact after you've heard it a thousand times.

      I rely in good poetry to help find greater meaning and inspiration. I believe that all knowledge –– including Holy Writ –– comes from probing insight developed through honest curiosity.

      The great poets and distinguished authors of classical fiction and philosophy were always searching for intimate Truth in their writings. Whether they found it or not is not particularly important. What IS important is their search has produced far better results than most of our futile flailing, floundering, fist-shaking, and moaning, so I look to them for guidance to what I may yet find WITHIN myself.

      The Kingdom of God (Truth) is WITHIN each of us. Too bad so few feel an urge to come to terms with that and examine its vast possibilities.

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  7. HI'm as upset with Washington politics as anyone. However, looking past and closing my ears to the Hildabeast's lies, rhetoric, and cover ups her overwhelming political dishonesty, and her complete lack of acomplishments is something I and millions of other folks just cannot overcome. Kicking over the present Apple cart and replacing it with something bizarre and another one of her stupid ideas is I risk just not worth taking. Hopefully a large majority of Americans will come to that same conclusion before November 2016, and vote for Donald Trump.

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    1. Haggis MacFilthandflarnJuly 20, 2016 at 5:54 PM

      This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    2. Comments MUST sat least be POLITE, and make some attempt to relate to the content of the POST.

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  10. Seriously you liberal Hillary lovers. You people are worried and worked up because Mrs, Trump supposedly in your eyes stole some speech from Mrs Obama. Is this all you got? Some of you are friends omy Facebook . There is a way bigger picture here people. You better pay attention. These ISIS people are serious

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    1. PLEASE try to show some evidence that you READ the POST before responding. I should delete your remark, because if has nothing to do with Kipling's poem or the illustrations that accompanied it.

      These generic reiteration of Talking Points are repetitive and tedious. Please try to show some originality –– some special insight –– next time you visit.

      Thanks.

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  11. Small Red GenitalsJuly 20, 2016 at 6:05 PM

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  12. It's important, –– if you want to be welcome here ––. to READ the POST, then READ the COMMENTS before you start to type a remark of your own.

    Copy and Paste is rarely-if-ever acceptable here. And as the rules clearly state, we don't want anyone to post irrelevant, insulting, vituperative, vulgar remarks.

    As Lucianne Goldberg says at her News Forum site, "This is SALON not a SALOON."

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    1. It's important, –– if you want to be welcome here ––. to READ the POST, then READ the COMMENTS before you start to type a remark of your own.

      Copy and Paste is rarely-if-ever acceptable here. And as the rules clearly state, we don't want anyone to post irrelevant, insulting, vituperative, vulgar remarks.

      As Lucianne Goldberg says at her News Forum site, "This is SALON not a SALOON."

      Besides, I DON'T WANT ANYONE WHO CAN'T –– or WON'T –– READ at this BLOG.

      Delete

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We welcome Conversation
But without Vituperation.
If your aim is Vilification ––
Other forms of Denigration ––
Unfounded Accusation --
Determined Obfuscation ––
Alienation with Self-Justification ––
We WILL use COMMENT ERADICATION.


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