Nostalgia

Today, I spent time helping the family rearrange the affairs of the house in order to prepare for the arrival of the architects next week. After watching a bit of the Olympics, I decided to hop in the pool below and swim a few laps, just for the sake of nostalgia. I often reminisce of 'the days of old,' when I was 10 years old. I see in Melvil the same sensitivity of heart that I have spent my life thus far trying to capture. I see in Milan the same determination to finish well that I have always carried. When I see the boys, I see bits and pieces of my own childhood and my mind often drifts to the days of playing pepper in the front yard with my dad and sneaking bites of chocolate chip cookie dough when my mom wasn't looking. I remember the days of rollerblading and bike riding with the neighborhood kids...wait, that was just yesterday.

So, with sentimentality, I want to share a few words which I learned as a child of 10 and have yet to forget.

[Disclaimer: I am not a fan of poetry. I prefer factual information over obscure images. Nonetheless, I've two poems to share with you today. The first, Laetitia reminded me of this morning. The second I have kept archived for the rainy days of life. Enjoy.]

'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 in it,
But - which is more - You' ll be a Man, my son!'

"IF"--Rudyard Kipling


'Somebody said that it couldn’t be done,
But, he with a chuckle replied
That "maybe it couldn’t," but he would be one
Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

Somebody scoffed: "Oh, you’ll never do that;
At least no one has done it";
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat,
And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.
With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle it in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start to sing as you tackle the thing
That "couldn’t be done," and you’ll do it.'

"IT COULDN'T BE DONE"--Edgar Guest