I don't tend to do maudlin, but every now and again Brian has a ponder, and sometimes when he does, I drag this out of the files and have a read. I suspect some of you have seen it before. 

My father sent me a card with this poem on about 20 years ago when I was going through a particularly tough time in my life. It contained a simple note from my Dad, but it gave me hope, a much needed kick in the pants, and a purpose. 

A few months later, with much kicking and screaming from Brian, and a lot of hard work, I dragged myself out of the educational gutter I'd dropped myself in, and managed to get back into college. 

Being kicked out for a year was a low point, but in the long run it's not done me any harm, and I certainly learned a lot about myself, and what I could actually achieve when I beat Brian into submission.

Brian has since got his own back by drifting off into fiction and oddity, but I think I can forgive him, as it's landed me a job with a wonderful group of people who bring me joy every day.

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!