Invictus

The Invictus, a movie based on the book “Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Changed a Nation”, starring Morgan Freeman is a delight to watch. Now, I am not going to write much about it. No reviews here, no comments. Just two things I want to share from the movie:

The thing that touches me most in the movie is the lesson in Forgiveness that is imparted by the subtle action of not repeating the same intolerance and cycle of fear against those who had earlier oppressed the South Africans, the so-called “whites”. In the words of Nelson Mandela from the movie:

“Forgiveness liberates the soul.

It removes fear.

That is why it is such a powerful weapon.”

Perhaps forgiveness is a difficult thing to do, or maybe not. Do we always forgive others for doing wrong to us? Or do we just bury the wrong deep inside somewhere in our mind without really tackling it? So that each time we are faced with the same situation or the same person, the buried ghosts come up to us to haunt us?

Richard Pettinger on www.spiritualnow.com gives an interesting insight when he writes “To be sincere in our forgiveness of others we should not even remember the incident. Sometimes forgiveness can be conditional, we shall tell somebody we have forgiven them, but maybe later we will bring it up to use it against them. This is not real forgiveness. Only when we do not think about the experience have we really forgiven others.”

I beg to differ. Perhaps fprgetting is not the best thing to do. When you forget something, you don’t learn from it. And it is important to learn from each experience, each person that walks into your life, and be careful not to make the same mistake in the future. Perhaps, when we talk about forgiveness, it is important to understand “To err is Human”, and show compassion towards the one who does wrong (sometimes, your own self).

To read more on what Richard Pettinger has to say about forgiveness, you can visit http://www.spiritualnow.com/articles/60/1/The-Meaning-of-Forgiveness/Page1.html

The second thing I want to share is 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