I've read the book "To Be Loved "by Berry Gordy who started the record label "Motown". The book was about his life written by him, and it was so impressive and amazing that I'm writing these sentences now.
There are a lot of things and sentences which impressed me very much in this book. Especially I was impressed by one poem which he quoted in this book. The poem is "If "by Rudyard Kipling. It seemed that he encountered this poem when he was 15 years old. This poem indicates one way to live beautifully. And this poem moved me a lot. So I want to introduce this poem here now.
If
By Rudyard Kipling
('Brother Square-Toes'—Rewards and Fairies)
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!
Source: A Choice of Kipling's Verse (1943)
This poem tells us the ways to be proud of ourselves and believe ourselves. Besides this poem told us the way to interact with other people. Moreover, interestingly this poem says, "If you can dream—and not make dreams your master". I love this stanza. Because I think it's indeed important to dream, but it's more important that we can't make dreams our masters. When I was young, I concentrated only on dreaming on, and I lost essential persons to me and my true happiness. So I want to cherish this stanza not to make same mistakes as a lesson. I wanted to meet this poem earlier in life. I'm so grateful for his telling me this poem.
Besides this, I agree with his idea in this book. The idea that it's meaningless to succeed if we can't share the joy with someone important. He succeeded in making a film featuring Diana Ross. But at the same time, he failed his relation with her, and he couldn't share his joy with her. In this book, there are not only his success stories but also his failure stories like this. So I could feel as if he was next to me and told me his stories. I think it's the reason why I love this book.
Thanks for your reading. I hope you'll enjoy. Feel free to leave me a comment.
