Invictus

Now Uganda.

Now Harry is saying, "The, the consequences of this letter is that I've lost this country for the Invictus Games." Is he fighting with his family? I mean, are we, are we seeing the Waleses at war yet again?

No, he just always wants to be the victim.

He is just, he's cl- taking victimhood to a new level.

He can't accept that, you know, his consequences have actions.

He thinks it's all because of everybody else's.

Now, the k- the guy in Uganda, I think he's quite a, an eccentric character, and he's obviously taken umbrage and feels that, um, the King won't be having any part in Invictus, and I, I mean, I feel for the athletes, and it would've been, I think they were the first East African nation to, um, provide people to take part.

So it's probably a bit sad for the athletes, but it's actually sad for Invictus Games, that even if a country feels once again that Harry is, by association, tarnishing the reputation of not only the King, but maybe even the Invictus Games.

I am the captain of my soul.

This is a line from William Ernest Henley's poem, Invictus.

This verse was also read out a few years earlier at the funeral of Ronnie Cray, a notorious British gangster.

3.

I'm going to have to see if I can find something here real quick.

The Invictus.

Yes.

Okay.

I do know where you're going with this, so we're going to offend a few people, so I'm excited.

Okay.

So from William Ernest Henley, and again, there is something beautiful about the spirit that Invictus tries to present.

But it's the first thing that, I mean, if I'm going to be honest and answer your question, this is where my mind goes because this captures it for me.

I'll leave it up there because otherwise I'll get up on my soapbox.

I understand you have a business called Invictus, which guides young people in applying to colleges.

Did I read that correctly? Could you tell us about that, please?

Right.

That's my day job that pays the bills.

But as with anything I do, I like to put a little bit of a literary spin on it.

So the company was named after the great poem by William Ernest Henley, Invictus.

And one of the most famous lines is, I am the master of my fate.

What

I thought was really cool about this, Invictus is Latin for unconquerable, but there's also the poem, which thematically parallels what you're talking about in the first verse that I just wrote.

I'll just recite the opening line of the poem.

uh by william uh ernest henley he says out of the night that covers me black as the pit from pole to pole i think whatever god may be for my unconquerable soul yeah which is like so beautiful but then just the wordplay of you even incorporating invictus the just the writing is really really well done there

thank

you

yeah i revisited that poem while i was writing this you know um And I was like, this is exactly it.

You... you got to free yourself.

Then I discovered that Nelson Mandela had shared the passage with Francois Pienaar, captain of the South African rugby team, before the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

I knew the story from the movie Invictus, but the movie changed it.

In the film, Mandela gives Pienaar the 19th century poem Invictus by William Ernest Henley.

In real life, it was Roosevelt's words about the man in the arena.

Brené Brown had dedicated her book to this speech, and the famous man in the arena quote from the speech reads, It's not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

I am the captain of my soul.

He's quoting Invictus, the poem written by an atheist that most fraternity sororities, they quote that quote.

That poem.

But here's the thing.

You know? By the way, this scripture very famously was mocked There's a horrid poem, some of you that are as old as me maybe, in high school by William Ernst Henley.

You read Invictus.

It's a demonic piece of poetry.

And it closes, it's Invictus, which, you know, I actually was sharing the gospel with a man one time, and he said that Invictus was the creed he lived by, and I said, well, I'm going to be praying for you.

There's a verse, it says, "'It matters not how straight the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll.

I am the master of my fate.

It was William Ernest Henley, a British author.

He wrote the poem Invictus, which means unconquerable.

Here's the last stanza of Henley's poem.

He says, it matters not how straight the gate.

Jesus says narrow is the gate, so he's poking here.