Upwards

Everyone around here knows about July 18. It’s the celebration and birthday of Mr. Nelson Mandela, previous president and lifeboat savior from the consuming waters of the apartheid era in South Africa. “Madiba Day” as it is called by natives,(as Mandela is from the Madiba tribe) has its focus in celebrating the sixty seven years Mandela gave to fighting the division in this country and encouraging the rest of the world to give their own sixty seven minutes to promoting this unity and breaking bonds that .
The movie “Invictus” came out a few years ago in order to tell the story of Mr. Mandela and his journey through the destruction of the apartheid: twenty seven consuming years in prison and the fire of a segregated country. And, if you have seen the movie you may recall the namesake of the film, a poem by William Ernest Henley:

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.

The freedoms of our nation can make it hard to imagine a captive body: one that is told when and where it can go and why and what it can do. We have grown up unfamiliar with places like ‘District Six’ in Cape Town, where entire communities were forced to abandon lifelong homes and memories because of the color of their skin. This contrast is the very reason we put our hands over our hearts out of respect for America and prevent our flag from touching the ground: to show we know and love our freedom.

And while the concept of the captive body may lack resonance in affluent ears, most will quietly affirm the idea of a captive soul. A broken heart, a restless spirit, an unspoken or resolved wish that may never take root: those are things we are familiar with, those are the captivities that we can relate.

Words are just letters until someone gives them meaning, and actions are just movement unless you decide it equates to more, but a soul only wanders if you allow it too, it only remains in chains if you decide it that way and stays captive only under its owners consent. I find Henley’s words hard to compete with: I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul. Despite the circumstance and regardless of the situation.
So here is a big Happy Birthday to Mr. Mandela and an even bigger thanks to God for providing a desperate time with such an unconquerable soul.

Here is to the Rainbow Nation and the Red, the White and the Blue.
Here is to persistence and to bravery;
And here is to free bodies and to free souls.