This morning on …

[1StrongBlackMan]

Morning Joe, one of the regulars (the guy that wrote the Double down book) said: “(President) Obama does seem to appreciate the need to make course corrections … He has never had to.” {or words to that effect} He, then, went on to explain (in that couch psychologist way) that because of President Obama’s background … absent father, the string of men, in and out of his mother’s (and his) life, etc., had led President Obama to learn trust/depend on his self, and no one else.

This brought a thought to my mind: “Why? Why should he change courses? Why are so many, so quick to want him to … especially when, to this point, he has made all the ‘right calls’?”

But as I was taking my shower (still bugged with the book guy’s remarks), I thought back to a poem that I was required to learn, while pledging my Fraternity, some 30+ years ago. It so, explains President Obama:

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![

[sheshe2]

1. If, by Kipling.

So very appropriate 1StongBlackMan.

"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,"

Amazingly, that is our President to a tee. That speaks volumes. I thank you so much for you post, I love it!

[freshwest]

2. That poem carried me through some hellish days and nights. Thanks, 1StrongBlackMan.

[1StrongBlackMan]

4. Me too ...

We had to learn three poems while pledging that have stayed with me, and been a source of strength over these 30+ years.

Invictus by William Erbest Henley:

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Don't Quit:

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and its turns,
As everyone of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When they might have won, had they stuck it out.
Don't give up though the pace seems slow,
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than,
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor's cup;
And he learned too late when the night came down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit,
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit!

And Kipling's IF:

[freshwest]

6. I've read those, too, but IF was the one... I won't go into the reasons. Now I think it fits PBO

Thanks for reminding me of them. It was very wise for your school to have you all memorize that for the days ahead, alone and standing and finding out about what one is made of. It is hard, but worthwhile.

[1StrongBlackMan]

7. It wasn't my school; but rather, ...

My Fraternity ... It was part of the material we had to learn in order to be initiated into the Fraternity.

[freshwest]

8. Sounds like a cool group, though.

[whathehell]

3. Just one thing: PBO's mother did not have a "string of men in and out of her life"

She had two husbands. Period.

Most of her adult life was spent helping poor third world women obtain microfinance
loans to start small businesses as a means of supporting themselves and their families.

[1StrongBlackMan]

5. But that's ...

not what the Book Guy said.

(Or maybe, that's just what I heard)

[MADem]

9. The book guy might have been shooting off his mouth...! nt

[1StrongBlackMan]

10. No doubt! ....

His crap was straight from that paragon of truthfulness and patriotism, Best selling novelist and WDN contributor, jerome corsi.

[whathehell]

12. Okay...I wasn't sure who said what. n/t

[IrishAyes]

11. Excellent poem and OP - thanks.

That's been a North Star for many of us, I suspect.