As you may or may not know, we have developed something we call the ninja system at RISE.
It’s designed to recognise and reward people’s progressions and achievements.
And to help keep them motivated and focussed.
One of the levels people work towards is ‘Black Panther’ – and, when they get there, we get them a funky custom hoodie.
This last month one of the members to get to Black Panther level was Sue.
You can see a photo of her and Vicky getting their hoodies here if your like.
We made a bit of an error with the selection of Sue’s nickname for the hoodie though.
We called her ‘The Captain’ as we thought she was captain of the RISE ladies netball team.
But she isn’t.
Whoops!
However, I cunningly saved the situation by telling Sue about one of my favourite poems.
Invictus by William Ernest Henley.
If you’re interested you can see a picture of when Oli, my eldest son, wrote the opening lines down for me and nearly made me cry – here.
The message in it is quite apt to Sue and some of the stuff that’s happening in her life.
And the last line talks about being ‘The Captain of my Soul’.
I think it has a message we can all benefit from.
Check it out:
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.
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Remember – whatever happens to you, you, and you alone, are the master of your fate and the captain of your soul.
Life throws all sorts of crap at us.
The gate can be very straight and the scroll often charged with punishments.
If you speak ‘Victorian’.
And it’s not easy, but ultimately, we are the only ones that can make sure that our heads are ‘bloody but unbowed’.
That the ‘menace of the years finds, and shall find us, unafraid’.
And that our soul remains ‘unconquerable’.
Much love,
Jon ‘Captain Kirk’ Hall and Matt ‘Klingon’ Nicholson
