Today is the day I focus on Positive Spirit! As I said yesterday, it is raining and I had to go to class today. I am still trying my hardest to have a positive spirit. The Earth needed to be watered, so it rained. I needed to learn something, so I had to go to class. It's why I am in college. Currently, I am sitting in the library reading Nelson Mandela's autobiography. I am across an example of positive spirit, and I thought I would share it with you! Here are a couple of lines from Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela about his childhood with a little background info summarized by me:
Background: Nelson had a very influential father in his tribe. He was a counselor to the Kings and was recognized by the British government. Therefore, Nelson grew up with a little more luxury than most. One day Nelson's father decided to defy the magistrates, and in those days it was not tolerated. Nelson's father was denounced of all titles and therefore the family was left with very little. Here is the paragraph from the book and what I think to be a great example of positive spirit...
"I was unaware of these events at the time, but I was not unaffected. My father, who was a wealthy nobleman by the standards of his time, lost both his fortune and his title. He was deprived of most of his heard and land, and the revenue that came with them. Because of our straitened circumstances, my mother moved to Qunu, a slightly larger village north of Mvezo, where she would have the support of friends and relations. We lived in a less grand style in Qunu, but it was in that village near Umtata that I spend the happiest years of my boyhood and whence I trace my earliest memories."
Nelson went on to describe the living conditions of his new living quarters in the next chapter. He lived in a hut mad of mud, ant hills, and cow dung. How could he have considered this to be where he spent the happiest years of his boyhood? Most of us would have been miserable. This is just one more reason why I think Nelson Mandela was such a great man with a positive spirit.
