Farewell to a Giant

(I wrote this when he was very sick last year in my post below "It's time to let Mandiba Go" and I stand by every word today.  This giant of a man has now flown into eternity and with grace, humility and tremendous gratitude we bid him farewell).

I was in South Africa.  I saw the affection, the well deserved reverance and admiration that educated people, taxi drivers and  the common folk feel for their beloved  Mandiba.  They should use that same love and devotion by letting him go now.  I think his time on this earth is done and he's been called home.  He's earned his rest and  his laurels, this man of the century who changed the world and left it a better place.  Don't keep him alive with machines, don't try to hold onto him.  He wouldn't want that.  He was too heroic, too courageous.  Perhaps the cycle of his life is done and he needs our permission to fly into eternity and immortality.  His was a long, extraordinary life.  We had him for ninety four years.  He saw the fruits of his labor and I'm sure he dies a fulfilled, contented man.  With all the respect and admiration I've always felt for him, I pray for him to go peacefully to his Maker.  It's time.  He's not afraid and we shouldn't either.  He served his purpose on this earth and he has earned his rest.  Mandiba is tired, and I shamelessly appropriated the nickname too because I love him.  I was in Capetown.  I saw the prison where he emerged after so many years, the way way he sustained himself.  He was a man with a mission and that mission has been fulfilled.  Let him go now with love, with gratitude.  Mandiba would want it this way.