Retrieve

I totally surprised myself.

I don’t know how I did it.

We had watched a documentary with Nelson Mandela himself

and then a movie about him, starring Sidney Poitier.

“Wouldn’t it be great to watch the movie

about the Rugby Team again;

but what is the name of it?”

We thought and thought.

It seems like it was one word.

All I could think of was “Gravity.”

Finally out of the clear blue sky,

I blurted out

“Invictus.”

“Oh, yes, Evictus,” DeRay remembers.

“Invictus,” I correct.

I could almost see it.

I haven’t thought about or seen that movie for years.

Actually, it was a 2009 film.

Verla first told us about it

(or did she tell us about The Blind Side or both?)

and we loved it.

But that was four years ago.

   DeRay checked the schedule.

   It was playing in 20 minutes.

   11 PM tonight only.

   How’s that for timing?

Maybe playing Free Cell, Word Jigsaw, Rummikub, Sudoku

and doing four brain kriyas* each day

is paying off.

Even so,

“Invictus”** popping out

was a shock to me.

*Four short yoga kriyas designed to wash the brain, balancing both the right and left hemispheres.  These simple kriyas open up the blockages so the oxygen and blood can flow, bringing mental clarity and balance to the brain.  They are designed to energize us, make us more alert, our eyes brighter. 

**The film tells the inspiring true story of how Nelson Mandela joined forces with the captain of South Africa's rugby team to help unite their country. Newly elected President Mandela knows his nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa's rugby team as they make their historic run to the 1995 Rugby World Cup Championship match.  Mandela wanted no one to play him except Morgan Freeman. 

Invictus

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.