Yeah. I ran into this one thanks to (who else) John Ringo, who referenced the poem in The Last Centurion. Then I went and looked it up and thought, "wow… just WOW". Then again, Kipling tends to have that effect; I read "Recessional" recently as well, and that was a bit like getting gut-punched.

Funny thing is, I didn't even know about the tale of Martha and Mary until I went and looked it up after reading the poem. And I'd say that Kipling agrees with us on the subject; it's all well and good to feed the soul first, but in reality, the hard work of life doesn't go away.

I suspect that is why Kipling appeals so much to military and conservative types. He wrote of the world as it was, and as it is, not as Man wants it to be. And those of us with sense enough to see what he saw understand his genius in describing the way things work with such lyrical and evocative quality.

but then Kipling doesn't stay on my bookshelf, it stays on my desk.

I've said the following before:

While the standard interpretation is that Martha was preoccupied with the wrong priorities, that never sat well with me. Custom at that time imposed obligations on the hosts to honor their guests, and somebody had to take care of that, or it would have been a dishonor. Martha was honoring her guest by making sure everything he needed was available. While I get what was said – the story is supposed to be a metaphor for the priority of the spiritual over the mundane – in the real world, someone has to make sure food ends up on the table.

And those who worry about such realities tend to be engineers. People who do the nasty, scutty work of keeping things running while generally unappreciated and forgotten, making our lives easier. "They finger Death at their gloves’ end where they piece and repiece the living wires. He rears against the gates they tend: they feed him hungry behind their fires. "

The poem also brings up that those of an engineering bent have to deal with the world as it is, and not as they wish it would be. "They do not preach that their God will rouse them a little before the nuts work loose." Even more so these days, many of these professions are among the few in a cocooned civilization where life and death choices, and attention to details are part of everyday living.

And you can't quit just because it's no fun anymore.