June 2024: The Power of One
Artwork by charles
“For this month’s artwork I began with a South African sunset. This is a special time of day and I wanted to use that and the different hues this time of day brings.
This painting is imagining what Peekay might have looked like when he was a very young boy, when he was away at the boarding school.
I have used Peekay and Grandpa Chook’s silhouettes that are made by the full moon’s light shining down upon them. It was fun to try and make these characters come alive and I hope you like them too!”
- Charles Don Florews
““The power of one is above all things the power to believe in yourself, often well beyond any latent ability you may have previously demonstrated. The mind is the athlete the body is simply the means it uses to run faster or longer, jump higher, shoot straighter, kick better, swim harder, hit further, or box better.
Hoppie’s dictum to me, ‘ First with the head and then with the heart,” was more than simply mixing brains with guts. It meant thinking well beyond the power of normal concentration and then daring your courage to follow your thoughts.” ”
It's sometimes interesting how a book appears on my radar to be read by our book club. The book we feature for the month of June is a fantastic book that I'd never heard of before that Skyler mentioned to me. Skyler is a delightful friend who I met through the TCADP book club who I think reads more than I do, and I'm in prison! Skyler asked me if I'd ever read The Power Of One? And said that it was her favorite book in high school. I replied that I'd not heard of The Power Of One and asked what was it about?
In response, Skyler sent me the book and wow! Was I surprised at how great of a book it is. The Power Of One was written in 1989 and is a fantastic story about a boy named Peekay who grew up in South Africa in the 1940s and 1950s. The book is semi - autobiographical based on the author's experiences growing up in South Africa.
From the beginning this book is a real page turner. And to my delight, T P O O was similar to another African author of English decent named Wilbur Smith who wrote several book series including the Courtney and Ballentine series. These books were about multi generational English families in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe. I'd read them years ago and was sad when there were no more books new to read. For me, TPOO felt like it was almost a new book in one of Wilbur Smith's series. I loved it!
The tale begins when a frightened five year old Peekay who is English, is sent to a tiny Afrikaans boarding school that was part of a backveld school system designed to foster a hate of the English. Here, a thirteen year old Boer boy known as "the Judge" set about persecuting the defenseless English - speaking Peekay.
A year later, Peekay is finally sent home to his family on a two day train ride. It is on this fateful journey that Peekay meets Hoppie Groenewald who is the South African Railways welterweight boxing champion. Hoppie proves to be a passing mentor to Peekay and through him, the small boy is introduced to boxing and the seed to become the welterweight boxing champion of the world is planted. Though this chance encounter, Peekay's life would be set on a irrevocable course for the next seventeen years.
It is though Hoppie that Peekay learns about the About The Power Of One, which is the power to believe in yourself and that in the fight game, the head rules the heart. But in the end the heart is the boss.
TPOO is historical fiction that deals with difficult subjects including apartheid in South Africa and the racism the Afrikaans Boer people displayed against anyone who was not like them including little Peekay. This abuse at such an early age by The Judge and his cronies traumatizes Peekay but through Hoppie he finds the great equalizer, the art of self-defense. And the boxing, the greatest art of self-defense there is. Hoppie advises Peekay to find someone who can teach him to box when he gets to his new hometown.
In this manner Peekay embarks upon the hero's journey. And against all odds he finds someone to teach him how to box and the adventure begins. Historical fiction is one of my favorite genre of books because I received the gift of a great story and learn about a time and place that I didn't know much about.
Good characters make a story go and conflict makes good characters. One of my favorite things about T P O O is its fantastic characters. Peekay is one in a million and the bad guys in this tale are just as good. The author makes you want to hate the bad guys be it The Judge or the racist Boer boxers Peekay fights. This book is 500 pages long and I read it in three days. Skyler was right, I couldn't put it down.
Africa is a place of legends and wonders and the stories that come from this continent have always had a strong pull on me. In T P O O, Peeekay becomes part of legend and is given a nickname that the African People bestow upon him, the "Tadpole Angel." The Zulus believe that the "Onoshobishobi Ingelosi" surely is a Zulu chief disguised as a white man, for only a Zulu can fight with as much courage as Peekay does.
I loved this mystical part of Peekay's story and as the little boy grows so does his legend. He becomes a warrior and reminds us that with a plan, little can beat big, something that I truly identify with. My entire life on death row has been about "little me" trying to overcome the seemingly unconquerable system and win the right to freedom and life after this place.
In the end, the power of one is about the power to believe in yourself and when you think that you've reached your limit, finding the courage and wherewithal to fight on just a little bit more because your victory is right around the corner. This aspect of T P O O resonates within me, and helps me to remember this absolute truth. That we all have what we need within us to succeed, even me. Sometimes we just have to dig deeper inside ourselves than we thought possible to win.
TPOO is an amazing book and I'm so thankful that Skyler sent it to me. I have read it at least four times since I got it in March. And this book has secured a place in my little library, has become an all time favorite and that's why its a worthy candidate to be included among the books read by our Words That Sustain Me book club!