I love this poem! There could be many meanings to Kipling's IF poem. Depending on your own perception, this poem could take on several different meanings. However, for me, this poem speaks to contemplating one's own meaning of life's difficulties, one's values and one's outlook in life. It also contains certain messages and values that Mike and I hope to pass onto Paige and Taylor as the years go by...
For example, how they can overcome the doubting Thomas' of those who may come into their lives, or how they can overcome those who are unwilling to take responsibility for their own actions. Just looking at the first few lines in the poem, you get a glimpse of the challenges that life brings. Mike and I will always seek to instill in Paige and Taylor a sense of personal responsibility for their actions and their inactions. We will teach them not to shirk from their responsibilities or to blame others for their own misgivings or choices. We want Paige and Taylor to learn the importance of accepting one's own responsibility for the choices that they will make in life; not to play the blame game. We will encourage them to look within themselves for the answers and will encourage them to NEVER let others push them around or make them feel small, unworthy of the lives they will lead.
Looking at this poem, it also stresses the importance of being true to yourself and when others try to break you down, you don't let those doubts or negative thoughts keep you from achieving your goals. As parents, Mike and I will endeavor to teach Paige and Taylor to take note of those who may doubt them or criticize them and to always remember that being true to themselves first and foremost will be the most important factor of all. We will also teach them that when disasters occur in life, that they are to learn from them; not ignore the disasters.
We will also teach Paige and Taylor to speak the truth, even when it's not popular, not hip, not politically correct, and at times just downright uncomfortable to do so. We will teach them that when life throws them curve balls, when there are disappointments and setbacks, that they will have to steer around those curves, use them as an opportunity to learn, and that when they've been kicked down, to always, always, always get back up. We will help them understand that it's when you're knocked down and disappointed in life that that is when the greatest life lessons can be learned. We will help them see that they become stronger and wiser because of the tough times.
We will also teach them to live their lives in a manner that is pleasing to God first and foremost, teaching them what is right and what is wrong according to God's values. As parents, entrusted by God, to watch over them, to rear them and to care for them, we will do all that we can to help them become women of integrity, women of character, women of well repute.
These are just some of the insights I gain from a quick analysis of this poem. I imagine someone else might draw their own meanings and applications from this poem. In short, this poem tells me that if you can get through life with all its curves, good and bad, and if you can tackle challenges that come your way head on, you will have lived a successful life. If you can go through life without whining about your circumstances, realizing that noone owes you anything, and that life is sometimes just plain unfair, yet in spite of it all, you can still achieve your goals and hopefully in the end, life's greatest reward: to be a real man, or in the case of our children, to be a real woman!
And, now the poem....
IF
By Rudyard Kipling
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!
