It's nice if we can occasionally look to actual heroes for inspiration instead of fictional characters in black rubber or the star of some reality show.
Nelson Mandela was a great man who showed the world that anger could not hold onto him.
Held captive for 27 years, President Bill Clinton asked him in a late night private conversation how he could possibly not feel hatred for his captors as he finally walked to freedom in 1990.
Mandela told him that he did indeed feel immense hatred and anger towards his jailers but realized right away if he held onto that anger, if he let hatred overtake him, he would NEVER truly be free.
Mandela was a man of his word, putting some of those captors in his cabinet when he became the president of his country.
Ask yourself-- do I hold a grudge, a sense of anger or hatred towards someone who wronged me? Have I become obsessed with that anger?
Are you quick to lose your temper?
Do you want to live the remaining decades of your life with an undercurrent of hatred, or do you want to gain a sense of freedom and peace?
I'm with Mandela. It's time to let it go.
It's time not to assume.
It's time to recognize that the person or institution that opposed you has a point of view too and that they are not inherently evil because the two of you don't agree.
It's time to adopt the teaching of a great man.
Let go the anger.
