Invictus

Robert and I just saw the amazing movie, "Invictus." What an inspiring man Nelson Mandela was to emerge from 27 years of unfair incarceration with insight and compassion for all men! For those of you who haven't seen the movie, it is a look at the life of Nelson Mandela after the fall of apartheid in South Africa, during his term as president, when he campaigned to host the 1995 Rugby World Cup event as an opportunity to unite his countrymen.[7] The title comes from the fact that Mandela had the poem written on a scrap of paper on his prison cell while he was incarcerated. In the movie, Mandela gives the "Invictus" poem to his national rugby team's captain Francois Pienaar before the start of the Rugby World Cup. I found the poem incredibly beautiful and wanted to share it with you:

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.

--William Ernest Henley

I think this poem will be my inspiration as I start the new year.