Rest in peace NELSON MANDELA

I offer this travelogue --click LINK-- as my meager tribute to the passing of a great humanitarian/activist. At least the spiritualism of Africa was addressed. Imagine accomplishing so difficult a complete sea change in one's own lifetime. Rest in peace Nelson Mandela.

My cousin John McLallen wrote rather more forcefully, "One of the few that weren't taken from us and how nice that was! Wasn't he cool! I enjoyed knowing that a man like him was amongst us. My father told me that there are people that arrive in history and provide direction and leadership while having no skin in the game other than doing what is right. Lincoln was one of those people and so was Rosa Parks. Bobby Kennedy was taken from us before the promise of his leadership could be realized. However, how sweet it is to see a life well spent and not taken from us."

Facebook friend and vocalist/musician Roderick B. Palmer splendidly offered, 

"A guy like Nelson Mandela reminds us all that you don't just have to be on this earth. It doesn't mean you have to end apartheid or something grand on that scale--go feed some homeless. Check on a friend and make sure they're okay. Be a better parent--because you don't know what kind of child you could be making into the next Mandela. Live a life of quiet purpose and love and you never have to be sorry someone like this is gone...you just wave goodbye and thank them for being so awesome in their journey, knowing perhaps someday in a place far from this one you'll get to break bread with them..." 

Lastly, Wall Street Journal's balanced op-ed summary 12.6.13 on Mandela "...He transcended his party's history of Marxism, tribalism and violence." Click LINK.