Sunday, 17 January 2010

Strive to be the best

An interesting article by Clint Eastwood in today’s MoS about his film, Invictus, concerning Nelson Mandela and the Rugby World Cup. Eastwood says, ‘I believe that if you strive to be the best you can be, you will find, in some way, that things will happen for you.’ I believe that too. So, no matter if you know that other writers have had inferior work published, don’t despair: in your writing, strive to be the best you can possibly be, and be true to yourself.

The film’s title is from a poem by William Ernest Henley that inspired Mandela during his 27 years in prison.

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.

And it's a poem that rhymes...
Nik

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