Invictus & Nelson Mandela

Tonight my wife got the movie Invictus and we watched it together.  I heard about this movie when it came out in 2009 and thought it sounded good and that I would like it but it just hasn't risen to the top of things I wanted to do until tonight.  Wow!  It was great.

After the movie the comment to my wife was something like this: "We hear all about people who do terrible things both today in the news and from history but we don't hear much about people who do great things like this".  I had always known that Nelson Mandela was a man who had done great things but this movie really made me more starkly aware of a little of the difficulties he went through.  The movie is well worth seeing. 

Morgan Freeman and Nelson Mandela

Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon do a good job acting in the movie--especially Morgan Freeman.  I have always enjoyed his acting (except in the movie Driving Miss Daisy). 

The title of the movie comes from a poem written by William Ernest Henley.  Henley was a large man with a red beard.  One leg was amputated as a result of "Tuberculosis of the bone".  His other foot was also diseased.  He spent a lot of time in the hospital and struggled to complete school much less work.  After recovering from his disease he married and had a daughter who was very sickly. 

Because of his strength and resiliency, Henley was the pattern that Robert Louis Stevenson used to create his character Long John Silver in Treasure Island.  Coincidentally his daughter Margaret Henley was the inspiration for Wendy in Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie.  Margaret died at age 5.  With Henley's familiarity with trouble and limitations it is no surprise that Invictus is his most known and such a powerful work. It seems to mirror his life long efforts to not be cowed by difficulty and circumstance.

The movie is a real treasure and the poem could give one much to contemplate as well. 

See below for a YouTube movie trailer. 

I will say that the soundtrack from the movie is enjoyable as well. 

Seeing this movie makes me wonder, right now, where are the men that are doing these great things that are influencing others for good.  Nelson Mandela did it on a national scale, but can't we all do it in a local scale and impact our neighbors and communities for good?  Who knows, some few of us may have the opportunity to impact a country or maybe the world for good. 

The scary part of the deal is that often men of this stripe must go through "the refiners fire" or in other words be tried and tested by reversals and struggle to build the strength that is needed to impact others for good.  Many of us would run the other way if we knew in advance that was the payment for the strength of character needed to be a power for good in the world. 

I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

What I've been reading #4

One of the things that I love about reading is that you can "do" things that you would never have the opportunity to do, or the courage.  Well maybe if you are like me you wouldn't like to do them but you like to have the experience without the doing.  Here's what I have been reading: 

Winners Never Cheat by Jon Huntsman


This book by Jon Huntsman was really an enjoyable and quick read.  It's basic tennants are to be honest and do what you commit to do, whether in personal life or business.  He has lived his life this way and done some amazing things in the process.  Amazing in his buisiness by making lots of money from an existance that started off with less than most of us, but also amazing in his philanthropy.  He has made philanthropic commitments and kept them whether it be with paying his tithing at church or helping those that needed help.  One thing that especially amazed me was that when he made commitments to help charities when times were good he kept them even when the economy did poorly and he literally borrowed the money to keep his commitments.  Most of us would be unable to do that.  A bank would say we were crazy.  But his bankers, despite advising him otherwise, did loan him the money because of his excellent past of keeping his word and they were confident he would repay them.  A good read with some excellent points in the book. 

I am Number Four by Pittacus Lore

This is a good YA story about two competing groups of aliens that are living among us earth folk.  The good guys (Lorien) look just like us, and the bad guys (Mogadorians) look like scary humans.  The Mogadorians previously destroyed the Lorien world forcing them to send their last few young protectors here to this world.  They were children and each one had an adult to raise them and teach them their heritage.  So when they are teenagers their super powers, called legacies, start to emerg.  A spell has aided the good guys such that they can only be killed in order.  The first three are already dead and now it is number four that the Mogadorians are hunting.  Number four goes from a regular teen to budding super guy within months and then has to fight the Mogadorians who have their own powers not to mention their killing beasties.  So you get a good exciting story with a sequel coming in a few months and I understand a movie on the way as well.  The story is enjoyable but the writing is not real smooth.  Hopefully the author will improve as he goes.  Oh, and one more thing, notice the authors name: he is a leader of the Loriens and is hidden on earth biding his time for the Lorien children to learn to use their powers. 

Heaven is for Real: a little boys astounding story of his trip to Heaven by Todd Burpo

This was a very enjoyable and quick read about a family whose father is a minister.  His son, when he was aged 4 came close to death and had a "near death experience" in which he visited heaven.  The details of this NDE didn't come out immediately and took a long period for the boy to tell about it to his parents.  This book is about that experience which is very interesting.  For the most part I found it in line with revealed information about the spirit world.  For me personally, the part that stuck out was that he met a little girl in heaven who claimed to be his sister and was there to meet him when he arrived.  He only knew his one sister that was alive and well.  When he asked his parents about her he found they had a miscarriage and that was apparently the sister.  Worth reading. 

Hooligan: A Mormon Boyhood  by Douglas Thayer

This is a very enjoyable book about a time about 20 years before I was born.  Douglas Thayer has written about his boyhood in a time and status that we would call poor with simple pleasures.  He talks about his growing up and learning all the little things that we learn, and all the questions that he had along the way.  His is a normal life, one with nothing extraordinary except that he tells it so well that it is fun to see how a boy in Provo Utah would grow up in that day.  It is told very straighforward and if you catch it, with a bit of humor.  I enjoyed this book thoroughly and expect just about anyone else would too. 

So there you are, another group of books that I've enjoyed and feel like that have added to me and not only entertained but taught me a few things as well.