IF BY KIPLING
IF, a poem by Ruyard Kipling
#Courage #Honor #Choosehowtoreact
If is a beautiful poem that Rudyard Kipling dedicates to his son John, who has just entered adolescence. He carries a philosophy made up of honor and freedom, and we understand why the father will not have the son reformed a few years later to escape the Great War.
Written at the very beginning of 20th century, he celebrates the virtues of stoicism under the British victorian era, where it was noble to restrain one's emotions and dominate one's passions. This society distinguished the strong, intrepid and hardened man from the weak man, a slave to his feelings.
Today, my interpretation of this poem is different. It is no longer a question of stoicism. We are sentient beings, we feel pleasure and pain. It is therefore respectable to express one's emotions and sorrows. However, the text calls for the courage of those who undergo a test.
Although we do not choose the occurrence of a painful event, misfortune or situation, we choose how to react to it instead of suffering and feeling sorry for ourselves. Even beaten down by fate, man must get up again to become sovereign of his life again.
This is the message I take away.
Excerpt from the poem "If" by Rudyard Kipling:
"If you can see destroy your life's work
And without saying a single word start rebuilding,
Or lose the gain of a hundred games in one fell swoop
Without a gesture and without a sigh"