News this week was dominated by
the death of Nelson Mandela. Alan
Paton, a South African novelist and anti-apartheid activist, wrote the book,
Cry,
the Beloved Country in 1948. It is set
in Johannesburg and in rural South Africa. It is a poetic description of family
breakup, murder and redemption. Most important, it describes its principal
character’s love for his people, the inherent goodness in all people, and his
love for his country, despite how it has hurt his people. Paton died before Mandela was released from jail
in 1990, but this quote by Paton seems to sum up Mandela’s life beautifully:
one can endure man’s inhumanity to man and that is to try, in one’s own life,
to exemplify man’s humanity to man
Use it to write your homily for
today.
David Horsey’s remembrance incorporates
Mandela’s quote that is on the wall of the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg:
Mandela was not a saint. He was an angry young man with a malleable philosophy that ranged from Methodism to Marxism. After his release from prison, he even agreed that his enemies were correct to call him a terrorist. What turned him into a great man with a legacy comparable to that of Martin Luther King or Gandhi, was his turn away from hate and towards forgiveness. Mandela was a man like any other except for his capacity to open his heart, even to his enemies. He also said:
Mandela never ceased being a revolutionary. He remained a socialist; he was an admirer of Fidel Castro. The man now being praised by the likes of Ted Cruz and George W. Bush was denounced by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, who felt he was a communist. Mandela learned a key lesson that most revolutionaries, politicians and world leaders never learn: Before you can change the world, you must change yourself.
In other news, Jeff Bezos, Amazon revolutionary, announced a drone delivery system:
The 113th Congress only works for another 7 days. Give thanks for your present:
The Detroit bankruptcy will be the XMAS gift that keeps on giving:
Regarding Inequality, What Would Jesus Do?
The Inequality debate continues:
Love the last one especially. Love ’em all.
By the way, was watching C-Span yesterday and glimpsed a few minutes of David Horowitz (yes, he’s an unreliable one note Johnny) who for the minute I watched managed to say the regime in South Africa that Mandela’s replaced was not an Apartheid regime (technically true – but it was on the way out!) and that what the left created by ending this non-apartheid regime is a mess (ignoring that before 1990, S.A. was a mess for blacks – so all that has happened is that whites no longer enjoy their special privilege).
@ Terry: My fave is the Amazon “50 Shades of Grey”. There were tons of Amazon drone cartoons this week, most were about Santa & Rudolph, some were funny, but this one was laugh out loud for me…