Nelson Mandela's Last Gift

Nelson Mandela’s Last Gift

 

I would have handled the situation differently. Likely most of you would have, too.

 

He was a young lawyer who not only failed to accept the status quo but he was offended by it. He was labeled a radical and jailed, and largely forgotten for twenty-seven years, until his struggle caught the world's eye. In time, he was released, and he ushered in great change in his country and throughout the world.

 

Nelson Mandela, in his life and in his death, is such an iconic manifestation of the core principle first established on the plain at Runnymede nearly eight hundred years ago: right, not might, should make right. The civilized world's Great Charter, the Magna Carta, played out in South Africa on the same plain all free people seek.

 

But there is another lesson of great reach in this lawyer's story. Few among us will get to right a large wrong.  But Nelson Mandela’s clear sight line on one of life's most destructive emotions can help us right a wrong that is large enough to do us great harm.

 

The greatness of Nelson Mandela lies in this as much as his life before he was released from prison.  We miss what his life can tell us and teach us if we focus too much on this vivid picture of a wronged man set free.  This is not the genius of Nelson Mandela or the key to his cathartic life’s journey.

 

Upon his release from prison, he was asked: how do you avoid being bitter? So much of your life has been unfairly lost?

 

He said: "Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.”

 

Nelson Mandela became the tangible symbol of the ravages of apartheid.  But it was his size, and his commitment to bridge the chasm from hate to hope through forgiveness, that allowed a nation to bridge that chasm as well.

 

His journey, and that of his countrymen, had to bring along those who continued their bitter support of apartheid.  To gain the better result, he had to give up his harsh and deep hurt, to which he was entitled, which lies deep at the heart of this paradoxically laced gift, forgiveness.

 

As this great man leaves the world stage, he leaves us this final gift, this better view of a better place and a better world: Old, long ago, resentments which run through our mind's eye, over and over, rob us of so much good. Forgive as many people as you can, as often as you can, and in as many ways as you can. Forgiveness is twice blessed, and it speeds us on our own journey to that place called Hope.

 

If an iconic lawyer leader can give up his resentment on such a large thing, surely we can give up our resentment on smaller things. The drink of this cup is not worth the cost. Just listen to the old lawyer who knew.