MANdela

Wednesday I was teaching my students about this song in the textbook called "Follow the Drinking Gourd to Freedom."  It was about an old slave song that they would sing to get clues for how to follow the Underground Railroad on the way up North to the free states where slavery was illegal.  The idea was that you looked up at the Big Dipper in the sky, which they referred to as a "gourd," and then could find the North Star from there.  Then we learned that the story behind the song might not be true, but escaped slaves definitely did use the North Star to find their way north at night, which was the best time to travel when you were a runaway.

Before listening to the song and reading the story behind it, I had to explain to all the students a summary of the Civil War and slavery in America, which is always a difficult subject to explain in 25 minutes.  Then we listened to the song, which was performed by Richie Havens, who also happened to be the first act at Woodstock '69.

Today we learned another story related to the freedom theme of the song.  It was about two families who escaped East Berlin to West Germany by building a hot-air balloon and flying over the wall.  They didn't make it on their first attempt, but they did on their second.  Of course, I had to explain the Cold War, which meant I had to explain World War II, which meant I had to explain World War I, although I drew the line there.

There's been a whole lot of freedom talk in class lately.

A few days ago I talked about a book by Stephen Alcorn that quoted inspiring heroes on a 365 day calendar.  Each day had a different hero quoted on their birthday.  When I received A Gift of Days as a gift days before embarking on my first journey, to India, I of course looked up my birthday first.

My birthday is July 18th.  According to the artist, the most famous and inspiring person with whom I shared a birthday was Nelson Mandela.

He died today.

He freed South Africa while in prison.  He is one of the most inspiring and celebrated humans in the world.

Not everybody thinks so.

One of my fellow kindergarten teachers in Japan was from South Africa.  I was telling him how it was so cool that I lived in a house with people from all over the world, but when I mentioned that one of the girls was African-American, he said, "Black people?  Oh, I couldn't live there!  I'm South African!" as if that explained everything.  I had recently heard gossip that he was racist from my boss, with the obvious irony that we were teaching a foreign language while we were minority guests in another land.  I asked what he thought of Nelson Mandela.  "Criminal!" he said.  "No, I can't stand black people at all."  I had never heard someone so openly and unashamedly admitting that they were a racist.  Most people I've met with racist tendencies tend to be Americans who want to prove they aren't racists because it's frowned upon here, what with all the history of slavery, civil rights fights and bombastic boasts of equality.  But this guy seemed to think I would obviously understand his hatred of an entire people who simply had a different skin color than he did.  It wasn't just based on black citizens of his country who may have wronged him or people he knew during the widespread violence that preceded and surrounded the transition of power while Mandela peacefully negotiated African rights to be involved in the governing of a nation which consisted of a population 80% African.  He somehow thought this justified hating everyone of that color skin wherever they were from.

The most natural and honest response I could think of was, "Some of the best and most inspiring friends I've had are black."  Which is true.  I don't have a lot, but the few I have had are amazing people who have made me a better person and helped me to succeed in life.

[Today the Wu-Tang Clan posted a Nelson Mandela quote:  "No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion.  People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart."]

That was a year before I moved to San Francisco where I lived in a house that turned out to be occupied by five black residents and five white residents.  The landlord was the son of one of the athletes who won first and third place medals at the 1968 Olympics and put their fists in the air during the National Anthem.  Many people thought it was a Black Power salute, but it was actually a human rights salute, and the second place guy from Australia did it too.  I learned this because the manager of the house, the mother of the landlord who lived in the attic, told me all of this.  She was an amazing woman who always cheered me up by sharing her own experiences of travel, spirituality and synchronicity.  Her best friend was a poet and a writer who gave me courage and confidence and continually blessed me as I moved out of the house, telling me that my mind was a space ship and if I would simply choose where I wanted to go, I would be there before I knew it.  I visited a few months later to drop off a stereo my dread locked Black Panther Party-t-shirt-wearing roommate had kindly loaned to me, and she kept asking if I was doing okay (I was staying in hostels, camping and looking for housing at the time) and saying, "God bless you."  After that I moved to Berkeley for a month, and then I visited New York and New York City for a few weeks.  I took this picture my first day in New York City:

When I got back I moved to Oakland.  Every day I went to work to teach English and had to walk along a road named after Nelson Mandela for about twenty minutes, each way.  There was a mural of the men who had taken the podium at the '68 Olympics giving the human rights fist.  I have a picture of it somewhere, but I can't find it right now.  But I do have a picture of a Mandela quote that was at the head of the street:

The other side of the street had a similar artwork that said the following:

"Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world."

That helped inspire me on the way to work.  But I want to do more than teach English.  Luckily, Mandela also said:

"There is no passion to be found in playing small--in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living."

I like this man the more I read his words.  Let's share some more:

"It always seems impossible until it's done."

"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 the fear." 

"There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered."

"Let freedom reign.  The sun never set on so glorious an achievement."

Amen.