For this week's newsletter, I have chosen a great poem to talk about.
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:
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!
In today's cruel world, where everything has a shape to fit in, where everybody is described by everyone, but not themselves, and a place that seems too small for everybody, Rudyard Kipling reminds us to stand as a person peacefully and respectfully. Even his pronouns in the poem are he and him. I believe that it is a great guide for everybody. His choice of pronouns is not a great appeal, but the lessons that he wants us to understand are the basic ways for humankind to live happily together.
Is it very romantic to think about a world like this? How can we push ourselves and everybody to it? Art is a great way to do it, even though its main morals do not have to be in this way.
The art we create and the art we admire can shape tomorrow, and we should never underestimate the effects of it on our community; that's why I believe that every person should be involved in any process of creating art, even though it is not very visible to everybody.
Şevval Korkut