IF<P>If you can keep your head when all about you <BR>Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; <BR>If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, <BR>But make allowance for their doubting too: <BR>If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, <BR>Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies, <BR>Or being hated don't give way to hating, <BR>And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;<P>If you can dream and not make dreams your master; <BR>If you can think and not make thoughts your aim, <BR>If you can meet Triumph and Disaster <BR>And treat those two impostors just the same: <BR>If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken <BR>Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, <BR>Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, <BR>And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;<P>If you can make one heap of all your winnings <BR>And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, <BR>And lose, and start again at your beginnings, <BR>And never breathe a word about your loss: <BR>If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew <BR>To serve your turn long after they are gone, <BR>And so hold on when there is nothing in you <BR>Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"<P>If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, <BR>Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch, <BR>If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, <BR>If all men count with you, but none too much:<BR>If you can fill the unforgiving minute <BR>With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, <BR>Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, <BR>And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!<BR>Rudyard Kipling <P> (1865 - 1936)<P>------------------------------------------------------------<BR>I've been doing a lot of reading over the past year.<BR>This poem comes from a book I have grown very<BR>fond of - it focuses on about 60 authors/poets/philosophers<BR>from history, dating back all the way to 1 AD. This<BR>is one example of a poem that just really makes me<BR>think - I hope it does the same for you. It was written by<BR>Mr. Kipling to his son as fatherly advice....<P>Mike<P>------------------<BR>God always waits for the right time to do the right thing in the right way.

ST2k,<P>IMO Kipling was a master...<P>This poem has helped me keep my sanity many times during my short life and I have shared it with many. X-Mas 99 my mothere gave me a framed lythograph of this and it sits on my fireplace...<P>I needed to read this today!<P>Thanks,<P>Bill

I needed it too. See my "ran out of patience" thread.

Excellent, Although I read it as<BR>...........And-which is more-you'll be a woman, my daughter<BR> <BR>Thanks!!<BR>