This concerns not the outdoors. Nothing of hiking or farming, yet all the same it applies to all things, I think. At work this afternoon, we had our special event for the quarter. It's something that we do every month, that usually includes food and some sort of team building event in most cases. Today's event was pizza and a movie.
As I said before this has nothing to do with the outdoors, however, the poem for which the movie was so aptly named has struck deep inside the character of my soul and I hope I can retain it for the rest of my life, for no matter what challenge is thrown in front of me, I am the captain of my soul.
The movie was Invictus. If you haven't seen it yet, then I would recommend it to anyone. I won't go into detail, other than it stars Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela, and Matt Damon as the captain of the South African Rugby team.
Now for the poet of the poem "Invictus", which is featured in the movie, William Ernest Henley. As I have learned he was diagnosed at an early age of Tuberculosis of the Bone which later spread to his foot. After having his leg amputated at the knee when he was in his twenties, he lead an active life with just the one leg left until he passed at the age of 53. It was while in recovery from the amputation that he penned the poem.
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.
~William Ernest Henley
It matters not what challenges lie before you, it only matters that you know that only you can decide to best the challenges that are set in front of you.
Happy Trails,
Tim
P.S. Information on William Ernest Henley was gathered from the Wikipedia Article on Invictus. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invictus
