Circumspecte

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. The man who best embodies the ideals and principles we cherish; the ideals and principles worth pursuing. Passion. Courage. Perseverance. Forgiveness. Conviction. Love. Humility. Purpose. Faith. Vision. The list is endless. What a soul. He was from us, but not of us. Unlike many, he understood the changing tides of life, the stark contradictions which easily elude us. He was a leader in the truest sense of the word; he sacrificed his personal ambitions for the good of his nation, his people. There are almost no words to capture the essence of this man; his work; his symbol; his legacy. Mandela's very being speaks for itself. "In him, we saw so much of ourselves," South African president Jacob Zuma said during his statement on Mandela's passing. I would add, in him, we see so much of who we could be . And that it especially true for us Africans, for societies where the concept of leadership, human rights, freedom is still a mi...

"Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death." - Anais Nin At different points of the earth, there once lived two oysters. Both were oysters, true. Yet one hailed from a small, pond in the middle of a grand forest, while the other rode the waves of the Atlantic. Conspicuously the same, inherently different, it so happened that the currents decided to let chance take course. -- A fisherman, well known for his skill on the high, reined in his net on a particularly promising day. However, try as he might, he caught naught but a single oyster. 'What a curious thing', he thought to himself 'The light is right, the winds on course, the shrimp is particularly fresh, yet the fish resist' Out went the nets again. And a second. And a third. But each time, only the oyster remained embedded in the criss-cross of coiled twines. 'Ver...