Stan’s Corner, October 3, 2011

I have just finished reading the exciting autobiography of Nelson Mandela, the man who led South Africa to the ending of the dreadful time of segregation called “apartheid;” who spent 27 years in prison; and who won the Nobel Peace Prize in the process. He says this: “It is from these comrades in the struggle that I learned the meaning of courage.  Time and again, I have seen men stand up to attacks and torture without breaking, showing a strength and resiliency that defies the imagination.  I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.  I felt fear myself more times than I can remember, but I hid it behind a mask of boldness.  The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”