If— - Rudyard Kipling

Wednesday poetic musings #27

Good evening, curious people!

I regret to see England go.

If losing the World Cup is hard on Brazil — even though it hasn’t been that long since our last victory (2002) — I can’t imagine how hard it must be for the English, who basically invented the game as we know it (association football was first “codified” in the 1860s by them) and haven’t won since 1966.

After we were eliminated by Norway, I was rooting for them. Next, I was rooting for England. Now, I will root for Spain (I think they had the second best performance so far, after France, who totally dropped the ball and lost the chance to get back at Argentina for the last World Cup).

However, the current generation of British players is better than we’ve seen in ages. Hopefully, they’ll come back stronger than ever.

How we deal with failure determines who we become — it is the difference between losers and winners. I hope the team will grow from this.

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!

Joseph Rudyard Kipling (1865 – 1936) was an English journalist, novelist, short-story writer and poet, best known for his children stories, such as the Jungle Book (1894), and for winning the 1907 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Best regards,

Malu.