Invictus ~William Ernest Henley

After watching Clint Eastwood's Invictus, I immediately began researching Nelson Mandela, Rugby, and the poem so powerfully read by Morgan Freeman.  Freeman, playing Nelson Mandela, recites the Victorian poem Invictus while depicting the 27 years of cracking rocks in prison on Robben Island.  My words won't do it justice.  Click on the link to view the scene:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVi4k44A1Yo

His message was simple: inspiration invites us to be better than we think we can be.  Wow!  What a profound idea!!!

But what inspires?  In the movie, Mandela speaks of “Using the work of others.”   In yoga we sing, chant, or meditate with sacred words and sounds to transform our practice.  The use of mantra doesn’t have to be reserved for Sanskrit words and Hindu Gods.  In South Africa Nelson Mandela used the sport of Rugby (played mainly by white South Africans) to transform a countries consciousness! 

To quote a good friend, “What else is possible?”

I invite you to share with me… what inspires you?

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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.


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“The poem originally had no title.  It was given the title Invictus (Latin for “undefeated”) by Arthur Quiller-Couch when he included it in The Oxford Book of English Verse.  At the age of 12, Henley fell victim to tuberculosis of the bone. A few years later, the disease progressed to his foot, and physicians announced that the only way to save his life was to amputate directly below the knee. It was amputated when he was 25. In 1875, he wrote Invictus from a hospital bed. Despite his disability, he survived with one foot intact and led an active life until his death at the age of 53.”

(thank you Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invictus)