Growing up there was one Sunday a year that my mother would let me miss church…. Wimbledon Finals. There were a lot of good memories packed into the two weeks leading up to the men’s final. Time well spent with my grandfather watching as many matches as we could. And during those two weeks at some point there would be a commentary made on the traditions of Wimbledon and Kipling’s “If” would be recited. The final camera shot of the player’s entrance to Centre Court where lines of Kipling’s poem were written.
Particular lines of the poem became some of my favorites and I often thought about having them painted somewhere in the “boy’s area” of the house so those words would be seen everyday by them. I never found the right place to paint the words but I think Kipling encompassed in one short poem the “Game Rules” for being a good person that are probably more relevant today then they were during his lifetime.
Magnolia Son donated 30 pairs of shoes to the Boys & Girls Club today. My wish would be that it was just as easy to “donate” these words to each child there…. what an impact THAT would make.
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!
Kipling
Growing up there was one Sunday a year that my mother would let me miss church…. Wimbledon Finals. There were a lot of good memories packed into the two weeks leading up to the men’s final. Time well spent with my grandfather watching as many matches as we could. And during those two weeks at some point there would be a commentary made on the traditions of Wimbledon and Kipling’s “If” would be recited. The final camera shot of the player’s entrance to Centre Court where lines of Kipling’s poem were written.
Love your post! How fitting is this poem for Christian!!!! …always