12 Comments

Thank you for this insight. Kipling was a chronicler of his time, which was not our time, so this update is, well, timely. Like many of us, he wrote some wise, witty words and some appalling ones.

In the wise, witty vein, at this time of year I like to base my resolutions on his poem that begins like this:

I am resolved—throughout the year

To lay my vices on the shelf;

A godly, sober course to steer

And love my neighbours as myself—

Excepting always two or three

Whom I detest as they hate me.

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Great New Year’s poem!

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A tad obscure? Huh! Okay, "obscure" has a fine...ring to it. Have a great seasonal celebration, Terry...and happy almost birthday...

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Ha! Thanks, Bill.

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I love it, Terry. Your committee did a fabulous job and the poet knows how to dig into the subject and touch my heart with her words. Kudos to Gisela!

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Fantastic Terry. This could be a motto for any profession—or any life for that matter. Building things to understand how they work. That’s impressive!

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Loved this. I come from a Leaside family of all engineers. I just forwarded your newsletter to my brothers for their enjoyment. They also grew up with ball hockey as their main source of exercise!

I only regret that I cannot forward this to my dad. He cherished his iron ring and all that it stood for. And he quoted Kipling, often.

Thanks, Terry. Best to you and your family; enjoy the season!

Janet Small

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Thank you for this, Terry. The selected poem is exquisite. Great selection by you and your fellow committee members.

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I first read about the Iron Ring Iron Ring in Louise Penny's novel, "A World of Curiosities"

https://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-a-world-of-curiosities/symbolsobjects.html#gsc.tab=0

Iron Ring also comes to mind when Doug Ford said he put an Iron Ring around Long term Care Homes to protect the residents but protected the owners from being sued instead. I was/am very bothered by this as I worked for over 30 yrs. in Community Support/LTC Programs as a Social Worker & a Supervisor.

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I've always thought engineers are a somewhat maligned profession. Mind you, back in the day on campus, some of them weren't very polite to us 'artsies.' But Wittgenstein, a profoundly influential philosopher, originally studied engineering and systems engineering has made major contributions to organizations. And then some of them even write novels. Does anybody know of any other than Terry who have succeeded at this? And Terry, I wonder if the systematic approach to planning you've outlined previously might owe something to engineering?

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Another interesting Sunday read. Thank you for helping us understand the symbolism of the ring that Engineers wear so proudly through the update presentation poem.

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Kipling still matters- he was just, unfortunately, documenting an undeniably bad time to not be a white person in the world. At least in his realistic work. The fantasy works he wrote for children are still some of the best in that genre.

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