Indirectly, I had to discover that Rod Blagojevich, Illinois’s Senate-seat-selling governor, has been quoting Rudyard Kipling’s If. Yes, that’s the same If that inspired me to write my book. What gall that man has.
At least he stopped just short of the two lines that form the core idea of the book: “If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster/and treat those two impostors just the same.” Odd. I would think that he must be hoping that his Disaster somehow reveals itself to be an impostor.
According to William Kristol’s account in today’s New York Times, Blagojevich on Friday, after pledging that he will fight, fight, fight:
quoted the opening lines of Rudyard Kipling’s “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 …
But Blagojevich carefully cut off his recitation before the stanza’s last line: “And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise.”
Well, I suppose the poem is public property. Go ahead, Rod. I’ll share.
Hannibal and Me: life lessons from history 
Rod may have known you were writing a book based on the Triumph and Disaster lines in the poem, and sensitively stopped short.
I have no reason to defend Rod, but we are supposed to remain innocent until proven guilty.
In matters unrelated, I saw someone else use the term ‘new agey’ today in a derogatory manner. You’ve introduced me to a whole new thing. I might live in the New Age Capital of the World, so I’m fairly cynical with respect to these matters. See http://www.elephantjournal.com/. Ironically, there’s a non new-agey link, even. Is this a sign of things to come? My wife uses the term joy junkie. Talk about lipstick on a pig. Apologies to Bill McKibben (who I believe walks the walk).
And another thing… (I’m not working very hard this week, flowing or otherwise, can you tell?)
Rod, no doubt, has pre-ordered the book.
Mr Crotchety, if you enjoy smirking at new-agey types, you might like my piece from a year ago.
This Bill McKibben appears to be in Denver. Am I to infer that it is therefore “the New Age Capital of the World”? I have some other candidates…
I was thinking of Boulder, CO. I think Mr. McKibben lives in Vermont (teaching at Middlebury?).
You have thereby outed yourself as a Boulderite. The plot thickens….
i’m hoping Blagojevich will inspire Congress to finally grow a pair and start doing what’s best for the people they represent (by putting this guy away for a long time)
Hmmm…I thought Sedona, Arizona and Santa Fe, New Mexico were deep in the Vortex, certainly Co-New Age Capitals of the World.
I know that when in Sedona last month I felt better about myself. At the small cantina, while sipping my Margarita and sniffing the special Green Tea lotion I had just bought , the Vortex insinuated that Life is Good.
I have thought about that Margarita a couple times this month as I now face the challenges of running my business (and paying everyone) in this economy.
I am worried.
I thought you were a writing teacher. Whom do you need to pay.
Regarding new-agey places: I’ll add Sedona to my list. I have sampled Big Sur, CA, Asheville, NC, Byron Bay, Australia, which can out-herb and out-reiki most of them…
There is also one very new-agey corner of Koh Samui, with enemas and Tai Chi and the rest, but if you take a wrong turn at the end of the beach you’re suddenly in a girlie bar …
Big Sur…ah yes.
Enemas and Tai Chi! You are funny. Thought you were going to add Rolfing to that list.
Whom do I have to pay? I founded an writing (not Riding) academy in 1998, so a number of instructors and staff hope to be paid each month.
Change the verb hope to expect.
Oh my God. What a funny slip. Can we call that a Freudian one?
Please correct my error. ” I founded an writing…”
My daymare. Like Mr. Crotchety, sometimes I hit the send button too quickly.
you writes good. You teach much riding. writers. Good.
Seriously, that’s great. Does the academy have a link?
Oh, and I’ve been rolfed too. I don’t think I’ve skipped any new-agey thing. My daughter, who has a new-agey name that shall remain undisclosed, watches me every morning pour saline water out of a Neti pot into one nostril until comes out of the other….
Hi Andreas,
Some names that I have encountered while calling roll on the first day of school are the following: Mark Marymee ( he said yes when I said, Marymee, Mark?) and Rusty Nail, whom I called Mr. Nail. Although the movie Sixteen Candles used this name, I did have a Vietnamese kid in my high school journalism class whose name was Long Duong.
As a child of the 60’s, I thought about naming my daughter Destiny, but my husband nixed that choice, so we settled on Sara.
My school?
http://www.millcreekacademy.com
That reminds me of my time in the Philippines, where the archbishop of Manila was named Jaime Sin. He was therefore…. Cardinal Sin.
I like your school’s philosophy. Incidentally, I’m sure you have read this sobering account of a writing teacher….
Thank God Blagojevich recited Tennyson this time. Whew! No more Kipling. Good for your book.