“If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs . . .”

When I see the continuous barrage of unfounded criticisms of the commissioners on the pages of the newspaper, I am reminded of a poignant poem titled “IF.” It was written by Rudyard Kipling many years ago, but the values espoused in the poem have not changed.

 

Here is the first stanza from the poem, “IF”.

“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;