Mandela and Us

With the passing of Nelson Mandela, a truly great leader, we mourn the loss of someone who stepped into history and shaped it.  He bent the arc of the moral universe toward justice, as President Obama declared (using a phrase coined by Unitarian minister Theodore Parker, a hero in his own time).

I am so grateful for his passing at age 95, for his never having been mowed down by an assassin's bullet.  My own heroes as a young person suffered that fate, remaining forever young, their achievements forever unfinished.  It is good--if such can be said about mourning--it is good to mourn a life that has been lived to its natural end, lived fully and well.

Here is what I am thinking as I sit with the sadness of his passing and the joy of his having lived.  This man was there when his country and the world needed him.  He was ready.  Something had prepared him for the moment when he began and something allowed him to grow and do well as further challenges came.

Mandela was one of a group of people who learned to struggle and learned to lead, even as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of many engaged in a large scale effort, even as Daw Aun Sang Su Ki stepped forth from within a group to lead.  Today, many are engaged in a large scale effort to reclaim our democracy and stop the destruction of the planet.  The struggle deepens, as does the danger.  Are we creating among ourselves the readiness to step into history when the time arrives? No one knows who will be in the right place at the right time to be summoned.  It could be anyone.  Are we ready?

I'm thinking just now of our own Tim deChristopher, whose brilliant solo move to stop the leasing of sensitive Federal lands for oil and gas drilling has moved the hearts and minds of many.  Are there enough others to back him up?  Is something building that he is part of?  It looks different than it did in Mandela's or King's time, with TV appearances and a film about his story.  But it must be the same thing in the end -- people connecting with one another, backing each other up, stepping into history one at a time and together. We are weakened by the myth that the great historic figures stand alone.

The moment comes and the great historic one steps forward.  History shines a spotlight on her and looks past the others.  When we do this, we lose the truth about these great movements.  It's first and most importantly about networks of people, interconnected webs of care and action.  The annointed leader is essential, but simply part of what makes it happen.

Can we save the planet? To learn from the anti-Apartheid movement, we need to honor Mandela, and also to look past him to the way the people worked together to end apartheid, being democracy, and bring reconciliation. The movement behind the man will show us the way.