Dad & the Path of Equanimity  ∴  If …

Tribute to R.G.G. who loved and revered one poem — "If" by R∴K∴  — and "La tirade du nez" from the first act (scene IV) of the play Cyrano de Bergerac by the French playwright Edmond Rostand. G∴D rest his soul!

The Ancient of Days, William Blake, 1794

∴

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.

IF, by Rudyard Kipling

The three dots ∴ that are often found with abbreviated names like A∴ A∴ and G∴D were originally intended to represent "Masonic Honour Points". In Masonry, a freemason who has received the first three craft degrees of initiation may put these three dots after his name. Organizations made up of Craft initiated Masons traditionally place these same three dots after the letters of abbreviation of their organization names, e.g. Golden Dawn: G∴ D∴ instead of G.D.

This practice is not strictly observed anymore in mystical organizations but is still used in the original way by regular Masons. Nowadays, the three dots are often used indiscriminately to represent "mystical", "once connected to masonry", "the Christian divine trinity" and almost anything else. The practice is often not followed when an abbreviation consists of exactly three letters since three dots or periods are already in place.

What are those three dots arranged in a triangular pattern?

The three dots (or three points) were formerly fashionable in Masonic writing instead of the usual periods after initials. The practice was apparently started in France by the non-recognized Grand Orient of France in 1774 and Masons were sometimes called 'Three-Point Brothers'. 

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