{"id":5085,"date":"2009-12-21T15:01:13","date_gmt":"2009-12-21T15:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2009\/12\/invictus.html"},"modified":"2009-12-21T15:01:13","modified_gmt":"2009-12-21T15:01:13","slug":"invictus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/12\/invictus.html","title":{"rendered":"Invictus"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MandelaRobb.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>Forgiveness is hard work, requires a steely commitment to make reconciliation happen at the deepest and realistic levels, and filters down from a leader to the people. Sports and cheering for a team are capable of reconciling enemies and those deeply suspicious of one another. <\/p>\n

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Such are the themes that emerged over and over in the movie Invictus<\/i>. Morgan Freeman played Nelson Mandela well — though no one can capture the man completely or perhaps even well. That early scene with his daughter made Mandela’s approach come to life: nonviolent, seek reconciliation, think nation, don’t seek vindication, and work together and we can be a reconciled nation. Mandela clearly saw the potential of sports. But the movie is a sports movie, the story of South Africa’s win in the 1995 rugby championship. The movie’s not Mandela’s biography, which we need — and I hope the South Africans do it.<\/p>\n
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That Kris and I have been to South Africa, and that we saw places we’ve seen — like Robben Island and Table Mountain and the coast of Cape Town — gave the movie special meaning, and I thought Matt Damion had a credible South African (Afrikaaner) English accent. The first time we were in Stellenbosch, the Theo Geyser’s favorite Rugby team was playing in a rain storm and he and I and Kris sat at a fine little restaurant in Stellenbosch, watched and sipped fine wine and had a wonderful evening. Rugby matters to the South African.<\/p>\n
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The poem, Invictus, was a leitmotif but I didn’t find it mentioned in Mandela’s autobiography’s index — perhaps a Hollywood poem imposed on Mandela:<\/div>\n
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<\/p>\n

Invictus<\/h1>\n

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. <\/p>\n

In the fell clutch of circumstance 
I have not winced nor cried aloud. 
Under the bludgeonings of chance 
My head is bloody, but unbowed. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

William Ernest Henley<\/b><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Forgiveness is hard work, requires a steely commitment to make reconciliation happen at the deepest and realistic levels, and filters down from a leader to the people. Sports and cheering for a team are capable of reconciling enemies and those deeply suspicious of one another.  Such are the themes that emerged over and over in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gospel"],"yoast_head":"\nInvictus - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/12\/invictus.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Invictus - Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Forgiveness is hard work, requires a steely commitment to make reconciliation happen at the deepest and realistic levels, and filters down from a leader to the people. 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