We watched TV tonight. After NCIS was over, Erik switched over to TSN and there was a documentary on about South Africa, Nelson Mandela and Rugby. I was ready to get up from the couch as I hear Morgan Freeman’s voice as the narrator, and suddenly I was drawn into this story about how Nelson Mandela was attempting to unite a country that had been divided by years and years of apartheid, and how he had been able to do so by igniting national pride in black and white people when they were all cheering for their national rugby team, the Springboks at the Rugby World Cup in 1995. 

We heard interviews with the original players of that team, politicians, activists, regular people, and even Mandela’s former enemies. And everyone had admiration for Mandela, and love. I have to admit, I didn’t know so many of the backgrounds of this part of our world’s history. And I didn’t know much about this man, Nelson Mandela. I do not know much now, either. But the little I learned tonight, watching this documentary, has filled me with incredible admiration for a man that was able to give love in return of hatred, and forgiveness to whom had done him so wrong, for the benefit of all the people in his country, regardless of the colour of their skin. 

Read some more about the documentary here, and if you can, catch it on TSN HD. It’s definitively worth watching.