My ever literate readers will recognise the title of this piece instantly. It may be fashionable to decry Kipling as the arch-imperialist (funny how we don't hear that being shouted ad nauseam outside US embassies these days) but I was reading a collection of pieces by one of Britain's best commentators (A A Gill of the Sunday Times) and he was full of admiration that Kipling had spent months working on that killer title: "Just So."
And my sporting - or at least sporty - readers will know that two lines from Kipling adorn the gates of Wimbledon: "If you can meet with triumph and disaster/ And treat those two impostors just the same". This very sentiment could now be fitting for my friends (and they are many, thank God) in the US. To paraphrase: " If you can meet with bull runs and recession/ And deal those two deceivers the same hand".
I have just returned from my annual schmoozefest in parts east of the Mississippi and, whilst I detect an inevitable nervousness re: the economy and an equally unavoidable disillusion with the President, nonetheless I have been at pains to reassure my associates on both sides of the Atlantic that Armageddon can wait for a while yet. The darkest hour is always just before dawn and I sense that, hard as this downturn has hit everyone - from high to low - the bounce back has also begun.
Having the dubious distinction of having survived at least three previous recessions, I can assure you that the end is far from nigh. People will always want to trade - it's in our genes. And the more enterprising amongst us will adapt faster and set off on a new path. And for those of you who think that the years preclude a new departure, let me cheer you with the thought that you are now equipped with a carapace of experience and savoir faire which not even the mightiest of twenty-something geeks can boast.
Oh yes - and one further consolation for my contemporaries: I saved $6 last weekend by buying my first ever senior's ticket to a soccer match. Of course I was annoyed that the nice lady at the turnstile didn't query my eligibility; of course I was disheartened by the onrushing years but, folks, $6 is $6. And in that spirit, my friends, I enjoin you: Onwards and upwards.
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