The first

The first one….My first post on my first blog….

Opening a space like this had been cooking in the back of my mind for a while now…so today is finally my first post day!

I’m not a big fan of social networking… not too sure why that is, but the truth is that it just doesn’t come natural to me to join and keep up with the different social networks that exists…But for some reason I found very appealing having a BlogSpot where I can share ideas, thoughts, happenings, images…. that one encounter while LIVING AROUND …

So to officially start up, I want to share with you this poem by Rudyard Kipling. It’s called ‘Letter to the son’ and I find it particularly moving and wise…Anyways, here it goes:

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 from waiting,

Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

And yet don’t look to good, nor talk to 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 them up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all you 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’re gone,

And 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 loose 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.

Just as a curious note, this poem was written by Kippling to his youngest and only son Jack (He also had two daughters) when he was 12 years old. They had a very close father and son relationship. Jack suffered from a very poor vision since he was very young. When the First World War started, Jack (then only aged 17) was desperate to join up and fight in the war. But he was rejected because of his vision problems.

So he turned to his father for help, so Rudyard Kipling pulled strings among his military friends. Jack was enlisted as a trainee officer, still under age (Officers were supposed to be at least 18 years old, in order to join)

Jack was killed on the battle of loos on September 27^th 1915. He had just turned 18 when he died.

Well that’s that for today… I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I do…If you have any comments, I would like to hear them.

Chao