Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Under Siege


When the whole world seems against you, what do you do?

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 all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath 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!

Rudyard Kipling

27 comments:

Trée said...

I'm experimenting with Picasa's web albums Here.

I believe you can get a better view of the larger pic there than here on blogger. Enjoy.

Anonymous said...

Crumbs! I love this - take a look at this photograph that I posted a long time back on my flickr stream:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sightsbyelizabeth/79721544/

How about that, huh?

:-)

Trée said...

Great minds, Leigh, great minds. :-D

IF has always been one of my favorite poems. I think this is the second time I've posted it and probably won't be the last. :-)

Anonymous said...

Remember when you posted this last time, was glad to be reminded of it then and am equally so today. :-) Such a wonderfully rich poem.

Anonymous said...

Picassa web albums? Is this something like flickr? Neat image, btw.

~smoochies~

Anonymous said...

Rudyard Kipling rocks!

When the world seems against me, I take it as a test of my patience, endurance and stamina, and believe that the gray skies will soon reveal sunshine and a meadow of flowers.

More posts on Russia coming up, if you are interested. ;)

Anonymous said...

The colours are so much better where I am now - that is one seriously gorgeous fractal!!

Anonymous said...

I love this image... Very nice Darlin', as always! ;-)

Trée said...

Thanks Y. See you down by the river bearing gifts. Let's just say, my gifts have a way of becoming a part of you, a part of your very being. :-)

Trée said...

Sunshine, so glad you are able to see this one in all it's glory. The problem with a computer image is you are dependent on the end users computer and monitor to display the image as it was posted (I say posted because, posting always involves some reduction in quality with compression). The images look very good on my screen, but I've seen them on some of the computers I have at work, and, well, let's just say it's not the same.

I'm hoping the web album helps with that a bit. :-)

Trée said...

Saffy, you are singing to the choir here. Kip does RAWK, as Holly might say. :-D

Trée said...

Oliviah, Picasa Web Albums in is a testing stage by invite only to gmail users. It looks very similar to Flickr with one exception that I can see on first look, which is seemless intergration with Picasa. This intergration makes uploading pics about as simple as clicking two buttons and that's it.

I imagine they will add some features and tweak a few others before final release. I like what I see so far and will continue to play around with it.

The FAQ will tell you all you want to know. Peace and hugs my friend. :-)

Anonymous said...

I just love that, bbb. Happy Hump Day.

Trée said...

You know, BBB, when you say that it has a whole new meaning. I say with enthusiasm, Happy Hump Day to you too dear. :-D

Anonymous said...

when the whole world seems against me I eat carrot cake. ;)

Trée said...

Oh my Sherri. I didn't need to read that in the middle of the day--blushing beet red. :-D

Taking care of the carrots has always been a nice way to escape for a few hours. Are you in need of some carrot cake today sweetie? I could be convinced to whip something up. :-D

Trée said...

To my visitor from

65.105.181.# (Tuck and Hinton Architect (151891-1))
ISP XO Communications
Nashville

please don't be shy. I appreciate you stopping by over the many weeks. Leave a comment and let us know who you are. Promise we won't bite. :-)

Anonymous said...

Yum! Carrot Cake! This is definitely a week for carrot cake.

Trée said...

Well, if you are sweet, I might throw in a little somthin somthin extra. No charge, of course. :-)

Anonymous said...

You need to be using something more elegant than Picasa!

You need your own domain name and your own gallery!

:-)

It's a beautiful day, huh? Good enough to eat carrot cake. It's Sherris' fault - she made me think of it! hehehe.

Trée said...

Leigh, I do so love the flattery. Perhaps one day. I do like the sound of elegant, which is one of my favorite words to see and pronounce. It just looks and sounds right. An elegant site. Mmm ... might need to give that some thought. :-)

Well, if I'm going to have more than one over for carrot cake--and that's not a problem mind you--I best get the place cleaned up and let the wine breathe a bit. What would you suggest with our carrot cake?

Anonymous said...

Well, I would go for a sweet Spanish sherry, something like Oloroso. Which is nice with a dessert. And as vintage is of no real importance to sherry as much as it is to wine, it's easily picked up :-)

Saying that, we could say to hell with etiquette and have good old Sangria!

lol

Trée said...

Sangria! I think I like the sound of that. Can I have a large orange slice to go with mine? After the first two or three or four we can forget the slice. :-)

Anonymous said...

I'd like to say I'd fight... but some days you just have to go with the ebb and flow.

I love the warm/dark colours in the image.

Trée said...

Thank you Chicky. Would you resist my embrace? Would you fight the ebb and flow of the moment? Or would you give into the symbiotic energy of a chance encounter perhaps never to be repeated? :-)

Anonymous said...

Who knows... when one goes with the flow, do they question?

Trée said...

If you're asking me, I say no--they don't question. :-D

I think that should be your answer too by the way--just in case, you see. ;-)