Opinion Forum

Happy New Year!

December 31st, 2012

2012 was a grim year. There have been many others.
May 2013 and all following years be far better!
It’s pretty much up to us.

Churchill_v_sign

There have been reasons for sadness.

If we are to survive as a constitutional republic,
our hopes and our spirits must remain high even in the face of defeat.

We all have work to do.
This should help us to do it.

One of my favorite poets, Rudyard Kipling, wrote

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!

If we can do that maybe, just maybe,
some fine day we will all be able to sing along:

Thank you, Bobby Burns

Critical update:

Just in case anyone else was asleep during the entire year and didn’t notice, here is a synopsis by Dave Barry of the most important happenings of 2012.

(This article was also posted at Dan Miller’s Blog.)

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: Auld Lang Syne, Dave Barry, Happy-New-Year, Robert Burns, Rudyard Kipling
Categories: Life | Comments (0) | Home