28 July 2021 — IF YOU CAN KEEP YOUR HEAD WHEN ALL ABOUT YOU ARE LOSNG THEIR HEADS AND BLAMING IT ON YOU …………YOU’LL BE A MAN MY SON! (Rudyard Kipling)

This is a fairly long poem and I have left most of it out but it is certainly well worth a read. There are many lines beginning with ‘if you can’, ALL containing various suggestions on how one can be a ‘man’/’woman’.

The line quoted is the one I have chosen to blog about because it is particularly relevant to me today.

And, I would suggest that it is NOT that easy to keep our heads, ie not react angrily or wish to defend ourselves when others are in colloquial terms, ‘having a go at us’. Our basic instinct, is of course, to defend ourselves. This instinct often arises from feelings of anger at being treated unjustly.

Whether we are angry or not, however, the urge to defend ourselves is strong. If we are to ‘keep our heads’ I would suggest that taking deep breaths or excusing ourselves from the situation might be the solution.