I was sick as a dog yesterday, lying in bed watching the World Cup…
Iran was playing Nigeria.
Wait a minute…who?
Yea that’s right, two countries that have been in the “bad” news quite a lot recently…
Can the world really become united in purpose in such a manner…outside the fictitious spectacle of sports?
Maybe…
I wrote the following piece a few years ago about the movie Invictus…
a movie that is about, among other things, a sporting event…that, infused with the fearless purpose of a humble man, helped a country find reconciliation…
could that same purpose be infused into the World Cup?
Probably not, but it’s interesting to consider…
Recently watched the movie Invictus.
If you haven’t seen it, you should. It’s one of those inspirational movies that Hollywood doesn’t make that often, but when they do it proves why movies can matter.
The story is about Nelson Mandela and his ascension from 27 years as a political prisoner on Robben Island to the presidency of South Africa…
and the end to apartheid.
Well, in actuality, his being elected president didn’t end it. In the minds of white and black South Africans, apartheid certainly still existed. Just as deep-seated prejudice still exists in the U.S., despite the election of the first African-American as president…
maybe even more-so since his election.
In the movie, Mandela uses sport, specifically Rugby, to overcome the fear and separation that was evident in the attitudes of blacks and whites. He even integrates his own security detail in an attempt to directly confront that fear and anxiety.
And his attempt to use the uniting force of sports to overcome those fears actually worked.
The movie mirrors real life events (for instance, Mandela really did present the championship trophy to Francois Pienaar when the Springboks won against New Zealand in the 1995 Rugby World Cup). And South Africa is a much more integrated nation now than it was then.
What struck me about Mandela, played by the great actor Morgan Freeman, more than anything else was his fearlessness. His ability to walk out in front of a crowd of thousands who had hated him and would rather see him dead, wearing a smile of reconciliation towards those whose hatred kept him imprisoned for the better part of three decades.
How?
I think it comes down mainly to one word…his purpose.
They have no idea what they really want, so the wind blows them wherever it may and every little twist of fate is magnified to imponderably negative proportions.
In the movie Mandela gives a copy of the poem Invictus to Francois Pienaar.
I have cited the poem below, which is by William Ernest Henley.
Read it and you can see why Mandela clung to it as a constant reaffirmation of purpose during his darkest days in Robben Island prison.
Invictus
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.
So, in the midst of all the bad news on the world front, what could be the purpose for a World Cup, apart from the mere spectacle of sports?
Think about it.
