The Green Jersey… A Story of a Nation’s Rise

It may be easy to forgive when you are weak, simply when there is no other choice…

And it takes a lot of courage to forgive, when you have the power in your hands.

But it took Mandela only a green jersey to do it

On #Mandeladay we remember his eternal story, the story of a nation’s rise over the wall of hate

We remember those moments that differentiate between pride and regret! 👇

Would you invite someone who tried to kill you to lunch?

Would you invite someone who was your prison guard to a ceremony?

He did…

Mandela invited the prosecutor — who asked for death penalty and was responsible for his life-term hard labor sentence — to lunch …

Mandela invited his former prison guard in Robben Island to the inauguration ceremony when being the President of South Africa….

What a man!

In South Africa, Rugby was the sport of the white elite, and it was detested by the black majority, the green color of the National team resembled hate for the majority of people, Green was the color of hate then.

Mandela made a great and outstanding statement by wearing a green springboks jersey at the world cup final match in 1995 between South Africa and New Zealand!

He presented the trophy in that green jersey to deliver a message, to say that hatred and enmity are over in this country, after decades of blood, resentment, and distrust.

And all the stadium began chanting” Nelson, Nelson, Nelson”

“In no way…you shall change the past, but forgiveness makes you change the future”

Mandela Said…

I tried to search for a word that would describe what Mandela did with his implacable enemies, I felt that the word forgiveness is too little to conclude his great conduct towards them. I searched the thesaurus and I found almost 30 words that would be synonyms to forgiveness.

I went through them one by one, Amnesty, clemency, pardon, tolerance, and I still feel that combining them together wouldn’t even be enough to describe his magnanimous act…

They say that Holding a grudge is like taking poison and expecting someone else to get sick.

Withholding forgiveness from people who hurt you doesn’t harm them, it harms you.

Normally, we build walls inside ourselves made up of anger, bitterness and hate to act as a defense towards those who hurt us…

In doing so, we think we are protecting ourselves.

To some extent, this may be true.

We are protecting ourselves from being hurt by the same person in the same way.

But at what price?

The new pain created by the walls we have erected is even more damaging than the pain someone else caused

We are just losing power to the person whom we hate, and we leave conditions in his/her favor every time we interact with him or her…

Forgiveness doesn’t mean forgetting, forgiveness implies being equipped with tools that won’t make you fall in the same issue again…

But what does it take to have amnesty and forgiveness towards others?

It takes courage…

Courage gives us confidence and equips us for future challenges. When we demonstrate courage, we build bridges instead of walls…

One man was walking in the park one night and suddenly he heard a sound of fight, he went closely and he saw someone attacking a little girl in the darkness. He hesitated …what to do? should I run away? Should I call the police? should I interfere?

Then he conquered his fear and decided to interfere, he attacked the assailant from behind and the guy ran away. Then he went to the girl that was hiding behind the trees and called her to show up.

You are safe now…he ran away….and she said in a weak voice…

Is that you…. Dad…?

She was his daughter!

Only one moment would make a difference…between pride and regret…

“Courage is not absence of fear. Courage is conquering your fear” …Mandela Said…

How many times you were in a meeting, or a group and you ought to say a word and regretted not saying it… or someone else said it and got the credit?

How many times you were negotiating with a customer, and you went out feeling defeated because you were shy to ask for what you want?

How many times you missed an opportunity because your competitor was dare enough to say I am here?

Many things in life such as discoveries, inventions, supporting global peace…etc. can make your name eternal in history…

But do you imagine that Courage can achieve that?

If you are interested in Biology, you should know that they named a woodpecker bird’s species after him; they named a whole species family Nelsonmandelai…

If you are interested in Physics .A nuclear particle was named Mandela particle…

His birthday on July the 18th was announced by the United Nations as Mandela day…

He received 695 awards including a Nobel prize in peace…

“It matters not how strait the gate

How charged with punishments the scroll

I am the master of my fate

I am the captain of my soul”

This is the poetry of William Ernest Henley that Mandela chanted every day to his prison mates urging them never to surrender or to give up…

Did Mandela do it for himself or because it was the right thing to do?

Sampson quoted -one of Mandela’s closest colleagues as once telling him: “I never know whether I’m dealing with a saint or with a Machiavelli.”

Always Have the courage to wear your green Jersey and remember that it’s a trait of the strong not the weak…