Kicking It with Kipling

I, for one, am exhausted by television anchors inciting public discord.

Rudyard Kipling’s noble advice rings true 125 years later.

“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 imposters 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’ll fill the unforgiving minute

With 60 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!”

Night never comes during the Alaska summer which means the sky never goes black. Twilight turns directly into daylight, allowing children to play outside at 10:30 p.m. Blackout drapes help but are not the solution. The best part about Alaska over Fallbrook is happy hour comes an hour earlier.

My daughter left the Nome hospital and joined me in Anchorage, May 18. Her injuries are extensive requiring a long rehabilitation. Only now, does she realize how close to death she was before the helicopter arrived.

Meanwhile, I am exploring happy thoughts, and I hope you will join me. With all her faults, I love her still – God bless America.

Elizabeth Youngman-Westphal can be reached by email at [email protected].