A quotation for Sunday, 29th March 2020

Hi everyone,

I've just engaged in a fun question on the forum on which three people you would like to self-isolate with. One who is usually a firm favourite to come to dinner, or indeed self-isolate with, and who has been mentioned again, is Nelson Mandela.

He can be controversial for a minority of people. They point out his involvement in terrorist acts, and it can't be denied that that is what led to his incarceration, ultimately.

But one man's burning cause is another's terrorism. I think we have to look behind the violent act to see what was its root cause, and in his case it was a huge injustice which wasn't listened to.

I prefer to think of Mandela in the whole. Or to say that, 'it isn't where you start, it's where you finish', and summing him up over a lifetime, not many could say that bad overruled good.

Anyway, he is someone who endured something similar (and much worse) to that which we are all experiencing right now, i.e. involuntary loss of freedom.

And I looked to him for some words of courage to help us through.

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” -Nelson Mandela-

So many of us are being asked to draw on reserves of courage. We can and we will do it, but we are also allowed to acknowledge our very real fears.

I hope you all have as pleasant a Sunday as you can and please take care and stay well.