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I suppose everyone and their siblings are writing about Nelson Mandela this week. I suppose it's only right...
I remember when he was released from prison in 1990 after 27 years. I remember him forgiving his captors. I wondered then if he was an illusion.
When he was young he was committed to the Gandhi, Martin Luther King nonviolent approach to revolution. He protested Apartheid. For those who may not know, Apartheid was the political system in South Africa that separated the races and gave privileges to the white.
Later, Mandela seemed to stray from his nonviolent roots and helped form a militant revolutionary organization. In 1962 he was sentenced to life in prison by the white government.
Left to rot. Left to be forgotten.
So he went from nonviolent to militant and then somewhere in those years, somewhere down deep in the belly of prison, somewhere deep in the belly of his soul he found nonviolence again. Prison would harden most. It softened him.
Not only did he find nonviolence, but he found forgiveness. And in forgiveness he found reconciliation. Even when his opponents had not found them, this nonviolence, forgiveness, reconciliation, he insisted on practicing them anyway.
A few short years after he emerged from prison, Apartheid was done...tossed in the infamous ashbin of history.
In 1994 he was the first black man to be elected President of South Africa; he served until 1999.
And now he has died.
When he was freed from prison and was spouting forgiveness, I found it interesting. When Apartheid fell I stood in wonder.
How many truly transitive moments to the good do we get to witness in our lifetime? How many truly great human beings? Great leaders? Mandela was the real deal; one who exampled his words.
In future history books he'll be hailed like Lincoln.
And like Lincoln, Mandela wasn't perfect-thank God for that. (In 1996 he and his wife of 38 years, Winnie, divorced. Most times it takes two to tango.) But I like imperfect because it shows that I too can do extraordinary things. And so can you. It takes all of our excuses away.
Indeed, anyone who says that we flawed human beings are not capable of greatness, or cannot bend the course of history, or can't impact the world for good; or anyone who says all is lost for the human race, I say only one thing.
Look to Mandela.
And find hope.
Civil strife was growing in South Africa. That, coupled with international pressure, led to his release.
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