“As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison,” – Nelson Mandela, proof that the final form of love is forgiveness.
It is rare that one soul can impact all of ours – and make us more patient, more powerful and more human. Mandela was such a soul. And he will never leave us.
Update from a reader:
Nelson Mandela is the greatest public figure of my lifetime – greater than FDR, Churchill, JFK, Popes John XXIII and John Paul II. Upon hearing of Mandela’s death my memory instantly went to his speech to the Irish Parliament and subsequently to the Irish people whose history is also filled with oppression and sadness:
It could have been that our own hearts turned to stone. It could have been that we inscribed vengeance on our banners of battle and resolved to meet brutality with brutality. But we understood that oppression dehumanizes the oppressor as it hurts the oppressed. We understood that to emulate the barbarity of the tyrant would also transform us into savages. We knew that we would sully and degrade our cause if we allowed that it should, at any stage, borrow anything from the practices of the oppressor.
Words every leader should contemplate.
(Photo, with the original caption: Nelson Mandela (3rd From Right), Leader Of The African National Congress And Other Militants Charged With Treason By The South-African Union Walked To The Room Where Their Trial Was Being Held In 1956. By Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images.)
The Dish 