Beech Tree News Network

Moods, reflections; small things appreciated.
     I think about Moon Pies a lot. I haven’t tasted in a while-a good while. One of the small things I once took for granted. Now I can’t have sugar. Every now and then I sneak a graham cracker… the nearest thing to a Moon Pie I suppose.
     In his book, Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela said: “Free men do not always appreciate the things one take joy in- after one has been in prison; small things: taking a walk whenever one wants; to cross a road, go into a shop, to speak or choose to remain silent.. the simple act of personal control or singing (The prison at Robben Island did not allow singing). Why? Perhaps like old American negro slave song that we know, it gave comfort and hope:
     “Without a song, the day would never end. Without a song the row would never bend, without a song that field of corn would never see a plow; that field of corn would be deserted now, A man is born but he’s no good no how, without a song…”
With all of his trials and triumphs, Nelson Mandela was still a self-effacing man; “I sometimes believe that through me, creation intended to give the world the example of a mediocre man, in the purpose sense of the term. Nothing could tempt me to advertise myself.”
     To Mandela, an autobiography was a thing of self-praise: “Most successful men are prone to some form of vanity. There comes a stage in their lives when they consider it permissible to get egotistic, and to brag to the public at large about their unique achievements. What a sweet opportunity for self-praise- this thing of an autobiography”.
     In his distrainment for the self-grandiose Mandela had a way of putting himself down: “I was being groomed for the position chieftaincy (He was a Thembu,  of the royal household) but then I ran away from a forced marriage… that changed my whole career (he became a practicing attorney). But if I had stayed at home I would have been a respected chief today, you know? And I would have had a big stomach, you know, and a lot of cattle and sheep.” Mandela’s law degree enabled him to fight apartheid starting in 1948. He was imprisoned in both Robben for resistance against the National Party’s South African apartheid policies. Island and Pollsman Prison from 1968 to 1990- charged with treason.
     Then to a half-way house until 1993. He was given the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993; elected President of South Africa in 1994. Nelson Mandela was a life-long Methodist, baptized at the age of twelve. He is now deceased.
                    Kindest regards…….