“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” Mahatma Gandhi

As the car taking him from the grey prison blocks slowly approached the gate, he ordered the driver to stop. Getting out of the car, strong and dignified, he walked the last few yards and strode out through the open gate to freedom and on to the world stage.]

After 27 years Mandela was free.

Bill Clinton, then the governor of Arkansas and his daughter Chelsea were among the millions that dazzling, sunlit morning watching the dramatic scene play out on TV. In the foreword to the book MANDELA, THE AUTHORIZED PORTRAIT, Bill Clinton recalled watching and wondering, as Mandela walked down that dusty road, what he was thinking about and whether he was angry all over again.

Years later he had the opportunity to ask him that. It was at a time when they both were presidents of their respective countries. President Clinton said, “I know you are a great man. You invited your jailers to your inauguration. You put your persecutors in the government. But tell me the truth. Weren’t you really angry all over again? And Mandela answered, “Yes, I was angry. And I was a liitle afraid. After all, I’d not been free in so long. But,” he said, “when I felt the anger well up inside me, I realized that if I hated them after I got outside the gate then they would still have me.” Then he smiled and said, “But I wanted to be free, and so I let it go.”

Letting go of a wrong done to you or some slight to your person, whether big or small isn’t always easy. Often it takes courage and a big heart. Can you imagine spending 27 years of your life, six days a week, smashing rocks under a broiling sun or digging in a lime quarry only to return late in the afternoon to a tiny cell and then somehow being able to forgive your jaliers? I don’t know if I could.

Never the less, it is true that carrying around old grudges or past injustices does, indeed, imprison you. Rather than looking for the good and the positive in their lives, many people spend their whole day looking for ways to be insulted. It isn’t hard. The problem with doing that, though, is that it takes the joy out of life and stops you from moving ahead to a better place. Worse still, it makes you blind to your blessings.

So much has changed in these 23 years since Mandela walked his famous walk. He has become larger than life, a model of immense courage and grace, a personal moral authority for people everywhere, regardless of race, creed or status.

Every once in a long while, the Universe presents humankind with someone very special. He was not perfect nor without his faults, as are we all, but his contribution was enormous. The eyes of the world are upon again, especially at this moment.

When he finally decides to go and walks the last walk, hopefully he will know that while we may forget what he said, we will not soon forget how he made us feel.