Rodent Regatta

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

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 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 things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build them up with worn out tools.

And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;

And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the will which says to them: ”Hold on!”

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;

When I was in the seventh grade, I was told that in three weeks I could have $10.00 if I’d memorize If by Rudyard Kipling. I did. I then carried a copy of it in my wallet all the way through high school and college. That copy – tattered and worn – remains in a tickler file where I see it monthly.

Though I’ve only lifted excerpts for the entry above, a thorough reading and understanding of the entire poem remains one of the purest forms of secular wisdom. It has influenced my personality and development to an enormous extent.