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Sunday, December 15, 2013

WoW !!! What a Splendid way to say "Goodbye until we meet again."

Well Done! Oh Good, Valiant, Visionary, Peacemaker and Unifier!

The end has come to signify all formal responses to the death of President Mandela after ten days of observerances. The outpourings have been so immense that even for those people right there I doubt if they were able to take it all in.

I think it was all fitting and appropriate that such a larger than life man be honoured to the outer extent of human endeavour. Never before have I seen the passing of a man, or woman, be the opportunity that so clearly defined his entire life's work. Mr Mandela was born into apartheid, and he hated the system more than anything. His life's work was to overcome racial hatred. He was firmly against white oppression and black domination.

You would have to be very sincere to convince the children that are called the "born frees" that there was once laws in South Africa against whites and blacks inter-mingling, but there it was,  everywhere you looked, blacks and whites, and people of every ethnicity together, grieving over the natural passing of the father of modern South Africa, living proof that his struggle was for all the people.

In a perverse kind of way it could be argued that his life was perfect. A child from rural Africa, untainted by city ways was able to see not only the difference between right and wrong, but was also sufficiently moved to actually do what had to be done to fix the problem. He took the pain of indignation and insult, and he had the good sense to know that the best way to take revenge on the enemy is to do a far better job than they in making the world a better place for all. This he did, leaving the whole world wanting for more.

It is natural that the body wears out and the end of the individual's life here on earth comes to an end. However, it need not mean that the individual's spirit dies. It think that the spirit is eternal and recycable. Mr Mandela received his spirit from one of his ancesters, and he has passed his to another. He now becomes An Elder in Perpetuity. He will be found in every history book about South Africa and readers will be consulting his wisdom 5,000 years from now.

So, yes the time came when he needed to lie his burden down and to receive a well earned rest. He was accorded appropriate respect and dignity, and his mortal remains lie in what must surely be the most beautiful hills of Africa.

Anyone who can command the respect of such a diverse cross-section of the world's people when the end comes can be truly said to have lived a life well worth living.

"Well Done thou true and faithful Servant." Now, Rest in Peace and Love!"

Copyright (c) 2013  Eugene Carmichael