Invictus

Len and I rented the movie, "Invictus" starring Morgen Freeman and Matt Damen the other night. It's about how Nelson Mandela helped to unify South Africa by supporting the beloved rugby team, the Springboks, in their bid for the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

Early in the movie Nelson Mandela meets with the Rugby team captain, Francis Pienaar (the Matt Damen character), and chats with him about leadership qualities. Nelson tells Francois about when times got hard in prison he would read a poem to get him through his hardships. Later on in the movie he gives Francois a copy of the poem, "Invictus". It was at this point I felt emotional and cried.

Back in 1963 we moved to a new state into a furnished rental house in the summer while our house was being built. There was nothing to do. I was thirteen, knew no one and my mother was reluctant to let me out of the house on my own in a strange town. She didn't let me out much anyway.

But the people whose house we rented had books there. I became attached to a slim volume of poetry called "101 Famous Poems." in fact, I memorized most of those poems that summer, for lack of something to do. I read them to my little sisters who listened because they had nothing to do either. I took the book with me when we moved to the new house. It is the only thing I can recall stealing.

Over the next few years, those poems took on a life of their own, comforting me during very hard times with my dysfunctional family. I clung to their words, researched their meanings, read about their authors. I incorporated the values of the poetry into my own belief system.

Later, I had to go back and change some of those values.

One of the poems I kept returning to for support was Invictus, same as Nelson Mandela. Imagine that. Me and Nelson Mandela reading that same poem for strength and courage to get through a difficult time. Thirty years apart.


William Ernest Henley (1849-1903) wrote "Invictus" from a hospital bed at age 25 in 1875. He underwent a below the knee amputation for tuberculosis of the bone that he contracted at age 12. Little did he know that his poem would live on to inspire many people, great and small to live good lives. Here is the poem. The word invictus can be translated from Latin, meaning "undefeated" or "unconquered".


Invictus
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Read a Book From Back to Front

Reading a book from front to back has never interested me. Better to flip through,  reading a line here and there, a paragraph on this page, then skipping to the next chapter. Read the last page first; skip to the index and read all the "R" topics. Go back and view the table of contents. Is there a bio of the author? Read that. Read the review blurbs on the back cover or one one the first inside pages. Eventually the book is completed. Now the book has richer meaning than if you had read it the conventional way because you've gained curiosity and insight by mixing it up a bit. I love reading this way, fiction and non-fiction. 
What's wrong with the world is that someone is always giving out rules that aren't necessarily valid. Do things the way they work for you.   

I Finally Figured Out My Password

When you are sixty, you forget things. You don't write passwords down that you've changed. Two-thirds of my sixtieth year has gone by. But now I will restart this blog. I have alot of writing to do.