28 July 2024: On taking action

Short story by Ernest Hemingway

He knew the jump would hurt. The river was swift, icy. Fear, a cold snake, coiled in his belly. But the bank was crumbling. The sun was a dying ember. He took a breath, the world distilled to this moment. And then, he jumped.

Invictus By William Ernest Henley

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.

Dylan Thomas on action

"Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light."