INVICTUS and MERCY

Some times we think that keeping a job and keeping our image together is so important. We have to look good. We need to be needed. We need to fit in.

Heaven forbid we are rejected..This is our biggest fear. Fear of Rejection.
Next to the obvious Fear of Death.

Although some Buddhists and some spiritual friends of mine say they don't fear death.


Generally though, urbanely, we create all these unnecessary problems for ourselves to keep our minds occupied, and to stop us from dealing with the larger problems or challenges in life. Fear of rejection, fear of change.

IS THIS FOR REAL OR HAS OUR NEUROSIS BECOME COMMONPLACE. IT'S A JOKE. MUST BE.


I was reminded of NELSON MANDELA spending 27 years in a small hole of a cell on Robben Island and being treated like an animal.

For What? For speaking up for his HUMAN RIGHTS..Later we would all understand.


He then found the strength to emerge, and when he had the chance to show revenge on the regime that captured him............He chose mercy and tolerance.

Here is the poem he recited to himself and to his friends everyday.....



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.



NOW WHEN WE THINK ABOUT WHETHER PEOPLE LIKE US, OR WHETHER WE FIT IN OR ARE PUTTING ON A FEW EXTRA POUNDS, OR WHERE TONIGHT'S PARTY IS......THINK ABOUT THIS..

27 YEARS and MERCY.

RL