This post was inspired by current events — namely, Super Tuesday.  When I came home today there were two recorded messages on my machine from a man who said he had been a prisoner of war alongside John McCain.  Of course, he said very complimentary things.  Usually, I don’t want to listen to that stuff, but this time I wanted to hear more. 

Also, we were invited to a McCain event at 7 a.m. tomorrow, and that rules it out for me.  But I gotta admire the man’s stamina.

I don’t know that I would vote for McCain, but I admire his strength.  Recently there was an article in the New York Times about McCain, in which the author discussed how McCain had relied on a certain poem, “Invictus,” by the Victorian poet William Ernest Henley, to get him through the dark days when he was a POW in Vietnam

Some months ago I posted a favorite poem in one of the PC newsgroups.  A man I know (and like), Manny R., responded by posting his own poem.  It was the same as McCain’s — “Invictus”.   Manny said he had memorized the poem as a boy, and he recited it to himself when he needed some extra courage.

I can attest that Manny R. is bloodied — he has had a lot of treatments for  advanced Pca.  But fortunately, he’s unbow’d.  So is John McCain.

Anyway, if the poem worked for these two guys, it might work for someone else.  Here is the poem the Times called a a”Victorian warhorse””

Invictus