IF

IF YOU can keep your cool when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can like yourself when all men hate you,
But make allowance for their hating too;
If you can walk long miles of limited waiting,
And ensure the parking’s fair and square,
Yet make allowance for the obfuscating,
And still don’t think that you can’t care:

If you can dream— and yet not lose your reason;
If you can think—and not forget the reasons why,
If you can stride unmoved through threats of ire
Keeping your head up although you want to cry;
If you can bear to see the truth you’ve written,
Dismissed by slaves to avarice and sloth,
Or watch the work you gave your day to, stricken,
Yet not give in to indolence and wrath:

If you can walk the walk when feet are burning
And talk the talk despite the pain you feel,
And turn, and start again at the last turning
Yet never breathe a word about your heels;
If you can force your nerve to stand there waiting
In front of angry men who mean you harm,
And keep your peace despite their prating
Then next second turn, prepared to use your charm

If you can walk in crowds, immune to mocking jibes,
Or speak with fools—yet be prepared to bluff,
If you can ignore their poor attempts at bribes,
If they can taunt, but you’re not rising to that stuff;
If you can justify an unforgiven ticket
With sixty seconds’ worth of ribald wit,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
Despite all that—you’ll know the job is shit!

With humble apologies to the late, great, Rudyard Kipling

Regards

Bill