The Second If ..

A Poem I read recently:

  If I could live my life again
  in the next one I would try to make more mistakes
  I would not try to be so perfect, I would relax more.
  I would be more dumb than I have been, in fact
  I would take very few things seriously.
  I would be less hygienic.
  I would take more risks, more trips,
  I would watch more sunsets,
  I would climb more mountains, swim more rivers.
  I would go to places where I have never been to,
  I would eat more ice-cream and less beans,
  I would have more real problems and less imaginary ones.
  I was one of those people who live sensibly and
  prolifically every minute of their life.
  Of course I had happy moments. But if I could
  go back I would try to have only happy moments.
  In case you didn't know life is is made of that, of
  moments only; don't waste this very minute.
  I was one of those people who never went anywhere without
  a thermometer, a bag of hot water, an umbrella and
  a parachute; if I could live again, I would travel light.
  If I could live again I would start to walk barefoot
  at the beginning of the Spring and stay like that until the end
  of the Fall. I would go around more on the calash, 
  I would contemplate more dawns and
  I would play with more children, 
  if I had again life ahead.
  But, you see, I am 85 years old and I know I am dying.


Well, this is not what you want to say someday.
Yet, I did rather prefer the other 'If'.These
'ifs' would be meaningless without Kipling's 'Ifs'.