Scott Cohen's Manly Diary - Musing on Kipling -

photo by ana traina

Leviathan no where. The crew wearies upon my sole vengeance. 
I think back to a time some 15 year ago. Early morn, I  stand on the road as I was headed to a day of work and worry. The times were tough but I was determined to make it through to another day. The wind at my back, the rising orange sun to my left the setting harvest moon to my right. A miraculous day seemed to be created and the idea that anything was possible was as real and palpable as Leviathan soaring through ocean mist in the middle of a hot summer's day. 

And as I stood in the glistening hope of  what could be, I thought not of the future that lay before me but was taken by the possibilities of a time laid out for a new one in our midst. For there was a young child waiting at home in the comfort of his mother's arms. In the deep soft smell of his mother's breast and dreaming of a world catering to his every whim. 

I thought of the greatness before him. And thought of this...

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 imposters 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 wornout 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 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!  May the swiftness of Hermes be at your feet young one. May the strength of Mountains lift you when you're lost and may Leviathan not pursue you but you pursue Leviathan. He will be yours.