One day, after a long, hard couple of weeks in the office, Huw and I went to have a few pints at an English pub. Our contracts were almost up and we were ready to move with our lives. Adding salt to the earth, many of our co-workers were discontent to the point of staging their own little mutiny and making the working atmosphere uncomfortable to put it mildly.
\nIt was between pints that we happened upon a poem, that was hung in front of the urinals. It read:<\/p>\n
\nIF
\nIf you can keep your head when all about you
\nAre losing theirs and blaming it on you,
\nIf you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
\nBut make allowance for their doubting too,
\nIf you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
\nOr being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
\nOr being hated, don’t give way to hating,
\nAnd yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
\nIf you can dream- and not make dreams your master,
\nIf you can think- and not make thoughts your aim;
\nIf you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
\nAnd treat those two impostors just the same;
\nIf you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
\nTwisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
\nOr watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
\nAnd stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
\nIf you can make one heap of all your winnings
\nAnd risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
\nAnd lose, and start again at your beginnings
\nAnd never breath a word about your loss;
\nIf you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
\nTo serve your turn long after they are gone,
\nAnd so hold on when there is nothing in you
\nExcept the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”
\nIf you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
\nOr walk with kings- nor lose the common touch,
\nIf neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
\nIf all men count with you, but none too much,
\nIf you can fill the unforgiving minute
\nWith sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
\nYours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
\nAnd- which is more- you’ll be a Man, my son!
\n-Rudyard Kipling<\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\nIt put everything in perspective. Work no longer seemed so stressful anymore, just another common chore not to be given any more thought than necessary to get the job done. The poem gave me a swift kick in the ass, yet again reminding me that I can always do better, or be more mindful of people, things, and events occuring around me.
\nIt seems that time passed quickly after this night. Our contracts expired, the mutiny resolved itself, and we were off- Huw to travel across China, Mongolia, and Russia by planes, trains, and automobiles, and I on my Kyushu road trip. After that, it was time for us to return to our points of origin and slip into the lives waiting for us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One day, after a long, hard couple of weeks in the office, Huw and I went to have a few pints at an English pub. Our contracts were almost up and we were ready to move with our lives. Adding salt to the earth, many of our co-workers were discontent to the point of staging … Continue reading