Guest Blogger Grace Shickler on Nelson Mandela's Legacy

Below is a letter written to our faculty and staff by Early Years Director Grace Shickler. It’s a powerful personal meditation on Nelson Mandela’s legacy and South Africa’s ongoing struggles.

Dear Friends,

I can’t put into the words the way I felt when I heard the radio announcer gently say that Nelson Mandela had passed away yesterday. I was on my way here to our High Meadows “Evening to Inform” event and yet I was sobbing all my makeup off in the car! My heart broke in two knowing that the South African people truly feel that Mandela is their father and grandfather and the savior of all that is right in the universe they live in. Although Apartheid has ended, the disparity between whites and blacks, the poverty and conditions that thousands still live with and the fighting with governmental policies still exists.

On our family’s trip to South Africa this past summer, Scott, Jaxson, Hayden and I ventured into one of the “districts” to pick up a student we knew. Beauty was a child to whom we were able to offer a scholarship a few years ago for the experience Scott offers every summer (The Ultimate Life Summit). When I met Beauty that year in Orlando, I heard people say that she lived in a place with no electricity. She was somewhat overwhelmed by just the hotel where the conference was--let alone Disney World! Little did I really realize what that really meant.

Driving into Beauty’s district this past June, the first thing I noticed was that something was missing: The electric wires that hang over other districts where people do have a bit of electricity. I then noticed that there was a three-sided concrete shelter for a toilet: One for the whole street to share. The “homes” were created from corrugated tin sheets, cardboard, plywood and other dirt-cheap materials. Around each little abode was a “yard,” many fenced in and guarded by a hungry dog to protect what little each family has. Yet Beauty and her family, living in a space smaller than one of our classrooms, are able to sustain a family where the kids go to school, take their meals together and keep everything clean and tidy. Without washing machines, running water or an indoor cooking apparatus. We brought Beauty’s mom a month’s worth of groceries, yet the shopping trip was similar to my weekly stop at Publix. I think you get the picture.

I am saddened that my own college and young adult years were devoid of connection to Mandela’s struggles and the end of Apartheid. They were news items I did not investigate more deeply. But I am trying to make up for that now. I urge you to absorb and learn about this amazing country and world leader. I hope our older children will have the opportunity to discuss Mandela’s gift to this world, to the people of South Africa and to human rights everywhere. His peaceful suffering (don’t get me started on our tour visit to Robben Island Prison!) will blow you away if you read Mandela’s book Long Walk to Freedom. He somehow managed to survive and become the light of their world. Of the whole world.

It is a very sad time in South Africa. Send your compassion and prayers if you can.