In her song "Diamond in My Hand" Molly Johnson says, "I have found a jewel in this rocky land / Held it in my hand and turned it all around." Perhaps the diamond is an adequate metaphor for the gift of Nelson Mandela to our world.
As we stand at the brink of a new year we carry that diamond in our hands. Let us hold on to it a little longer and turn it around and look at it. In Mayo Angelo's poetic tribute to Mandela she says, "We will remember and be glad."
Angelo compares Mandela to David facing Goliath. Truly, "the hope of Africa sprang from prison doors" and the "refreshing breeze of freedom" felt cool on the brow. Nelson's twenty-seven years in prison did not daunt his spirit of freedom.
Mandela's march from the prison gate took him to the presidency of South Africa. Apartheid crumbled before the man who made en effort to understand his enemies and to reconcile with them.
Even as the world asked "what happens next?" there were signs that Mandela's followers know that what happens next is up to them. What happens next is up to us. The world watched as President Obama, shortly after his message of tribute to Mandela, rushed over to shake the hand of Cuba's Raul Castro.
Mandela's long walk is over, but our walk into the New Year is just beginning. We have an opportunity to "open wider the gates" of freedom, and to help the poor who "live on the floor of our planet", as Angelo put it in "His day is done".
Robin Benger in his tribute to Mandela quoted Shakespeare, "We will not see his like again." Others called Mandela the Lincoln of South Africa, comparing him to Ghandi and Martin Luther King. In our turn we can strive that "never, never again shall we see the oppression of one by another."
Among the Mandela-isms that survive is: "It always seems impossible until it's done." On hatred Mandela said, "Love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite." And, one of my favorites, "As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same."
As we look at the diamond that is Mandela there is much to be learned. "I'm not a saint," he said, "unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps trying."
Let us not be sad that Madiba's day is done, but let us remember and be glad.
