For My Son :
If you can keep your head when all around you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Be lied about ... and refuse to lie back.
Be hated ... and refuse to hate back.
If you can dream ... and not make dreams your master
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken twisted by knaves.
Watch everything you built fall apart ... then rebuild it with whatever broken tools remain.
Put everything you've won on one single bet.
Lose it all. Start from zero and start again at your
beginnings and never breathe a word about your loss.
Speak to crowds without losing your soul.
Walk with kings without losing your humanity.
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
Respect every man. Need none too much.
Do all of this ...
Then the Earth and everything in it is yours.
And even more than that ...
You'll be a Man, My son.
There's a specific tone of voice everyone uses when they want to sound unbothered by something that is very clearly bothering them. We all recognise it immediately in other people and somehow never in ourselves.