REMEMBERING

Nelson Mandela died today at age 95 having made a difference in this world. His was a miserable life under the insanity of apartheid, then 27 years in prison. He changed us so that we now pause and wonder how he survived each of those years. We wonder if our life is making a difference for those we love and those we hate, and which matters more.

Wendell Berry wrote Enemies:

If you are not to become a monster,

you must care what they think.
If you care what they think,

how will you not hate them,

and so become a monster
of the opposite kind? From where then

is love to come—love for your enemy

that is the way of liberty?
From forgiveness. Forgiven, they go

free of you, and you of them;

they are to you as sunlight
on a green branch. You must not

think of them again, except

as monsters like yourself,
pitiable because unforgiving.