In our generation there are few individuals who shine forth as does Nelson Mandela.
I’ve thought a lot about him and how he became Nelson Mandela.
On this day in 1962 a young revolutionary leader was jailed. I don’t know a lot about that man. But he wasn’t Mandela, not the Mandela.
I wish no such experience for anyone. And such an experience is much more likely to produce bitterness, hatred and a burning desire for revenge. Or, just to break someone completely…
We can’t call what the ingredients are, of character of encounter of individual moments.
All we know is through some strange alchemy that person who was jailed on this day in 1962 was burnt away, and twenty-seven years later someone new, magnificent, an exemplar of what we, each of us might hope to be in this life, stepped out of that prison. It was that new man who would guide with compassion and wisdom, the formation of a genuine republic at the southern edge of the African continent.
No paradise, that’s for sure. But a place where human dignity has a chance. Where hope breathes.
And his influence has spread like fire across the world, changing many lives…
Worth recalling, I think…
Especially on this day.
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