IF…
Scouting and Kipling; intertwined, were a great and important part of my early life; from about age 5 or 6 to about age 13 when I completed my Eagle Scout requirements as a Lone Scout. I just recalled a special poem, in reflecting upon the value of Scouting and found the poem by Kipling that my Great Grandmother and Grandmother REQUIRED that I learn before I went to first grade… and they would often prompt me, if I violated the precepts in some way with… “JODY – IF” and I was expected to recite the poem; I think it had some effect on my learning and growing.
Great tears are in my eyes as I recall the wonderful attention that those two great ladies, both one room school house Marms, gave to my Education, my Learning, and my Schooling; all separated by them for me! And, Oh!, the attention and caring I did receive with two full time teachers – I was the only student they had! And thus: Education being those things I studied with duty and for use and often at my own volition based upon what I wanted to know; Learning, those things I proved I had learned and could use and employ and Schooling, those things required by the law and by the school regardless of their importance to me, my agreement with them or their value otherwise.
I recall a saying “Be always attending to your education and be wary to not let your schooling get in the way of your learning.” Perhaps you have heard this.
IF: by Rudyard Kipling; one of the most famous poems of all time.
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! =====
Jody Hudson
