enemy
I've read some interesting pieces of writing on the subject of "enemies" recently.
There was a chapter in a Don Carson book about Big Enemies and Little Enemies. We may not all have to deal with "Big Enemies", but "Little Enemies" are everywhere: the co-worker who forgot to do the thing you asked, the obliviously chatty (and sketchy) guy sitting beside you on the plane, the friend of a friend who tells awful jokes and votes for that OTHER party.
Yes, Little Enemies are everywhere.
But, what I actually want to share today is how a very famous man dealt with some Big Enemies:
"Towards the end of his 27 years in jail, Nelson Mandela began to yearn for a hotplate. He was being well fed by this point, not least because he was the world’s most famous political prisoner. But his jailers gave him too much food for lunch and not enough for supper. He had taken to saving some of his mid-day meal until the evening, by which time it was cold, and he wanted something to heat it up.
The problem was that the officer in charge of Pollsmoor prison’s maximum-security “C” wing was prickly, insecure, uncomfortable talking in English and virtually allergic to black political prisoners. To get around him, Mr Mandela started reading about rugby, a sport he had never liked but which his jailer, like most Afrikaner men, adored. Then, when they met in a corridor, Mr Mandela immediately launched into a detailed discussion, in Afrikaans, about prop forwards, scrum halves and recent games. His jailer was so charmed that before he knew it he was barking at an underling to “go and get Mandela a hotplate!”
From Mandela and Rugby
So. We've heard it said that we should love our enemies. And though Mandela was probably motivated to educate himself on rugby for other reasons--I wonder if this isn't at least a tiny bit instructive for those of us who (sometimes) strive to love our enemies--big or little.
Know your enemy, disarm your enemy, make it possible to love your enemy?
And then this insight by Bill Keller in his NY Times review,
"Having read their history and studied their sport, Mandela astonished the Afrikaners by addressing them in their language (learned in prison), but mostly by not hating them."
Hmm. That sure sounds familiar, doesn't it?
NY Times Review of Playing the Enemy
There was a chapter in a Don Carson book about Big Enemies and Little Enemies. We may not all have to deal with "Big Enemies", but "Little Enemies" are everywhere: the co-worker who forgot to do the thing you asked, the obliviously chatty (and sketchy) guy sitting beside you on the plane, the friend of a friend who tells awful jokes and votes for that OTHER party.
Yes, Little Enemies are everywhere.
But, what I actually want to share today is how a very famous man dealt with some Big Enemies:
"Towards the end of his 27 years in jail, Nelson Mandela began to yearn for a hotplate. He was being well fed by this point, not least because he was the world’s most famous political prisoner. But his jailers gave him too much food for lunch and not enough for supper. He had taken to saving some of his mid-day meal until the evening, by which time it was cold, and he wanted something to heat it up.
The problem was that the officer in charge of Pollsmoor prison’s maximum-security “C” wing was prickly, insecure, uncomfortable talking in English and virtually allergic to black political prisoners. To get around him, Mr Mandela started reading about rugby, a sport he had never liked but which his jailer, like most Afrikaner men, adored. Then, when they met in a corridor, Mr Mandela immediately launched into a detailed discussion, in Afrikaans, about prop forwards, scrum halves and recent games. His jailer was so charmed that before he knew it he was barking at an underling to “go and get Mandela a hotplate!”
From Mandela and Rugby
So. We've heard it said that we should love our enemies. And though Mandela was probably motivated to educate himself on rugby for other reasons--I wonder if this isn't at least a tiny bit instructive for those of us who (sometimes) strive to love our enemies--big or little.
Know your enemy, disarm your enemy, make it possible to love your enemy?
And then this insight by Bill Keller in his NY Times review,
"Having read their history and studied their sport, Mandela astonished the Afrikaners by addressing them in their language (learned in prison), but mostly by not hating them."
Hmm. That sure sounds familiar, doesn't it?
NY Times Review of Playing the Enemy
posted by Duncan and Jen | 7:51 PM
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