inspired

husband and i just watched the movie invictus. the one about rugby playing in south africa? well i just have to say that i am slightly fascinated with apartheid and south africa and the like and this movie was fantastic. i don't know much about nelson mandela but in my book, he was one cool dude. in the movie they had lots of great quotes from him and one of them i really really liked. he said "forgiveness liberates the soul. it removes fear. that is why it is such a powerful weapon." this coming from a man who had been imprisoned for nearly 30 years. speaking about forgiving the people that caused him so much grief and pain. what strength he must have had to look at his nation and see not two separate people but one.it amazes me. the amount of suffering the black people of south africa endured is staggering.

i took a class last year and the teacher spent most of his professional research on the events that took place in south africa, the literature, the memorials and the events themselves. he had us read a large amount of poetry written about The Truth and Reconciliation Commission that took place in south africa. if you don't know much about it basically what it was, was a way for those guilty of crimes committed during apartheid to confess what they had done in full and in return they would receive a pardon. more or less. some of the things that were said were quite shocking. appalling. disgusting. heartbreaking. and many of the victims really just wanted to know why. one of the poems we read really hit me hard. here it is.

The Archbishop Chairs the First Session

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

April 1996. East London, South Africa

On the first day

after a few hours of testimony

the Archbishop wept.

He put his grey head 

on the long table

of papers and protocols

and he wept.

The national

and international cameramen

filmed his weeping,

his misted glasses,

his sobbing shoulder,

the call for a recess.

It doesn't matter what you thought

of the Archbishop before or after,

of the settlement, the commission,

or what the anthropologists flying in 

from less studied crimes and sorrows 

said about the discourse,

or how many doctorates,

books, and sinstallations followed,

or even if you think the poem

simplifies, lionizes

romanticizes, mystifies.

There was a long table, starched purple vestment

and after a few hours of testimony, 

the Archbishop, chair of the commission, 

laid down his head, and wept.

That's how it began. 

- Ingrid de Kok

i want to have the strength required to forgive. i don't think i'll ever be faced with a situation that can even remotely compare to the one that thousands of people faced in south africa. but if i were, i would hope i would have the courage and strength required to forgive.