The Mandela Effect

The Mandela Effect Part I

 

Even in death, Mandela lifts our hearts and our spirits in hope and determination to take up the mantel he cast off while he now sleeps. The air around the world is charged with his indomitable spirit. It’s as though he has gripped our minds and our spirits to infuse them with his philosophies. It’s perhaps a final call to arms in the battle between right and wrong.

How long will this last? It’s hard to say but I don’t expect any residual effects on the government officials who attended the memorial service. Already Adrienne Clarkson was spouting off about neither Brian Mulroney nor Stephen Harper being asked to speak at the event. And then the antics of Barrack Obama didn’t contribute anything to the memorial either. Quite frankly, the whole business reminded me of what we see in Mafia style funerals where competing families get together to make new alliances and forge new underground deals.

To his credit, Mulroney has his personal friendship with Mandela that no one can take away from him and is satisfied with his memories of that. I and many others who have lost friends understand that clearly. It’s not something that the arbiters of governments would cotton on to. And the elegant wordsmith Steven Lewis doesn’t give a rip about any of the shenanigans at the memorial either. He went over to Mrs. Mandela directly and they had a quiet, meaningful conversation.

It’s like the two solitudes really, well perhaps three. While Desmond Tutu traveled to the memorial to speak to it, his house was broken into and he was robbed - again. Now the diminutive Tutu is as much a giant as Mandela ever was and certainly an iconic figure in South Africa as well as the rest of the world. He has certainly had a lot to do with the abolishment of apartheid as evidenced in his writings and the robbery is a shame upon the perpetrators and a dark canker on the character of South Africa.

Yet the general populous of South Africa as well as the rest of the world are thankful for the presence of Mandela, this moral giant in their/our midst for all these years and I shouldn’t be surprised that he has a positive effect on us all for years to come. He and others laid out the path to freedom and equality for everyone as you will see in part II of this series. The indigenous populations of the world would do well to pay attention. There is a way to achieve the Rainbow Society and it has been clearly illustrated. At least that’s how it seems to me from up here on the top shelf.

Just sayin’.