DEAL WITH IT
Sometimes,
there are situations facing people that seem insurmountable regardless of one’s
age. When they occur, stress builds up and
they are perceived as existing forever. The fact of the matter is with time
they eventually do pass. How we handle a
situation can be managed with minimizing stress. It takes a certain amount of personal
awareness to understand and deal with it.
We need to step back and recognize that we have a choice as to how we
react to what we are facing. True,
that’s not easy but we do have that capacity to summon the process of
reasoning.
Maybe
some of us can remember our English class in high school when we read and even
memorized “Invictus” (Latin for “unconquered”), a short Victorian poem by the English
poet William Ernest Henley (1849-1903).
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 or
cried aloud.
Under the bludgeoning
of chance
My head is bloody but
unbowed.
Beyond this place of
wrath and tears
Looms 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 the
punishments the scroll
I am the master of my
fate:
I am the captain of
my soul.
Interestingly
enough, in 1875 one of Henley’s legs was amputated due to complications from
tuberculosis. He was due to have the
other removed; but, fortunately another surgeon saved the other leg. He was inspired to write this poetry while
recovering and also with recollections of an impoverished childhood. His poem has been immortalized by Winston
Churchill’s speech to the House of Commons on September 9, 1941 by paraphrasing
the last two lines of the poem, “We are still the masters of our fate. We are still the captain of our souls.” Nelson Mandela, while in prison, recited the
poem to other prisoners and was empowered by its message of self-mastery.
We
have the courage and ability to address stressful situations in a rational
manner to endure what may appear to be unending, perpetual or everlasting.
