Hmm, alright so no one probably ever wondered, but does anyone who reads this (is anyone even reading this???) even know what my domain (http://invictus-92.blogspot.com/) means? ok, 92 is the year of my birth, which isn't to hard to figure out
however, does anyone know what invictus means? no? not interested in knowing?
well i'm still going to tell you and illuminate that mind of yours, so suit up, shut up, and listen up. or read up. tomato tomahto.
well, invictus is simply latin for unconquered, hence the title, Life: Unconquered. ok, so the proper latin would be invictus vitae, but i sincerely don't care.
now, you may (or not) wonder why i chose this particular word, or where i stumbled across it in the first place.
see, a long, long, time ago, in a galaxy that is ours, in a little blue insignificant planet that is also miraculously ours, i was a young guy with nothing to do except watch television all day. i still do too. well, i chanced across a little WB (now CW) drama series, entitled "One Tree Hill". now i'm not going to explain what the show is about, just go Google it. Suffice to say, it's about teenagers with daddy issues and step brother issues.
moving on, the show tends to out of nowhere narrate excerpts of old school poems (the main character is a novelist, hence the weird interest in literature). One of these was well, you guessed it (haven't you?), called invictus, written by an English poet, William Ernest Henley. the poem was, in my extremely humble and insignificant opinion, awesome. i even recited it in front of my school assembly (which to my horror some started quoting the last sentence). basically the poem tells of never giving up, and doing things you want, your way. it somehow touched my heart, and i now know (most of it) by heart.
so here's the poem, taken from wikipedia, with hope that you, too, shall remain unconquered.
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.
hope you like it as much as i do. and please don't quote that last sentence. i've had enough of that...
title picture taken from trailer of the movie Invictus, starring Morgan Freeman, about Nelson Mandela.
