A Light Goes Into The Next Room

Madame,

“Hinges rusted shut.”  Wonderful image, so aptly descriptive of so much seen.

Of course, I’m sure we all feel that “others” have theirs rusted shut, but WE are open minded, lol.  If we all questioned our own thinking a little more, how better the world might be!

As to “cheating,” variation from so called “desired social norms” takes place for many different reasons—biological, psychological, or emotional only some of them. But the desire for partner—momentary or otherwise—variety, albeit traditionally stronger in males, is sharply present in enough of the population to be significant.  Variety is sought plenty in many everyday things.  Add in the lure of the sexual/emotional/excitement/danger, and one has a cocktail of temptation made all the more so by hormones.  The analogy should not be taken too far, but one may have favorite foods or favorite restaurants, yet one still likes to eat other things at times, even if they may not be quite as good.

Although he would dislike such talk, we lost one of the titans of character this week: Nelson Mandela.  Tributes will take place to him, far more than I can do justice to here, but a great light has moved on, leaving us impoverished.  “Hate clouds the mind,” and interferes with strategizing, he said for his obituary interview with the New York Times seven years ago.  This from a man who had more reasons to hate than most.

This Gandhi/King like figure, who was at the same time in ways more than either, focused on dignity, even before justice. In his own words, he was a “sinner who never stopped trying” to be better than he was before, and to strive to live up to the ideals he set for himself. 

While Naomi Klein chronicled well in The Shock Doctrine how the ANC failed to realize that economic power would drive political maneuvering (and so gave up their rights), and how economic servitude did not change appreciably enough in post-apartheid South Africa, Mandela did accomplish an extraordinary thing with his Truth and Reconciliation Commission.  While it was far from perfect, it kept retribution away, much in the same way Vaclav Havel did in Czechoslovakia.  If the economic restraints can be loosened, South Africa holds the seeds of much promise.

Even today, on Robben Island, the place where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for nearly 28 life-stealing years, Mandela’s presence is felt and his legacy continues.

For the tour guides are former guards and former prisoners.  Thinking about that might make patching up family disputes that millions have this holiday season not look as formidable as they did, eh?