Day 9 - January 9, 2010

Saw the movie Invictus. Aside from the uplifting and inspiring message of the movie, I found myself moved by the trials Nelson Mandela suffered and by the fact that as horrible as his circumstances were, he surpassed them. After spending 27 years in prison, having been wrongly convicted, he emerged a better person and forgave those that oppressed him. I looked up the poem by William Ernest Henley, and decided to post it here as a reminder that we are more than our circumstances.

William Ernest Henley. 1849–1903

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	5
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,	10
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:	15
I am the captain of my soul.