Come Up With a Smiling Face - Inspiration Thursday

I stumbled upon this poem in a book about random acts of kindness during the Great Depression called A Secret Gift by Ted Gup.  The first stanza was all that was referenced in that book, but when I looked it up in entirety I discovered that the whole thing is pretty grand, especially, in my opinion, line six from the first stanza and lines two through four in the second.  Life is full of challenges and set-backs, along with the joys and triumphs.   Despite all the travails though I do honestly believe that life is still good--that troubles are what you make them and that the only thing to do is to keep on trying, to come up with a smiling face, and to make the most of all that has been.

How Did You Die?           
             by Edmund Vance Cooke

Did you tackle that trouble that came your way
With a resolute heart and cheerful?
Or hide your face from the light of day
With a craven soul and fearful?
Oh, a trouble's a ton, or a trouble's an ounce,
Or a trouble is what you make it,
And it isn't the fact that you're hurt that counts,
But only how did you take it?

You are beaten to earth? Well, well, what's that?
Come up with a smiling face.
It's nothing against you to fall down flat,
But to lie there -- that's disgrace.
The harder you're thrown, why the higher you bounce;
Be proud of your blackened eye!
It isn't the fact that you're licked that counts,
It's how did you fight --  and why?

And though you be done to the death, what then?
If you battled the best you could,
If you played your part in the world of men,
Why, the Critic will call it good.
Death comes with a crawl, or comes with a pounce,
And whether he's slow or spry,
It isn't the fact that you're dead that counts,
But only how did you die?