The Barn by Ralph Hagen for August 20, 2023

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!”

― Rudyard Kipling, If: A Father’s Advice to His Son

And if you didn’t hire the right lawyer, you could have 4 criminal indictments and counting.

Then you know you’ve been overlooked by the butcher.

I prefer – When you are up to your a** in alligators it´s hard to remember the object was to drain the swamp!

At least they’re doing something constructive! LOL

Rory so happy with himself :D

LOL!!

Rory’s always prepared for “add verse” conditions.

If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, you just don’t understand the situation. ;>)

Love this one!