I’ve met two people who have met Nelson Mandela, one of the greatest humans to walk this earth.  The first was one of his jailers who eventually formed a close friendship with him.  The other is one of my mentors, a former US ambassador who served all over the world (East Berlin, the Balkans, Eastern Europe, and Africa).  She is an example of how greatness and humility co-exist.

She told me stories about Mandela.  How he is the greatest man she’s ever met (and believe me, she has met and worked with every US President since Carter and all the corresponding Secretaries of State).  How he had a temper.  How he loved children.

The story that hit me the most, however, is her surprise at his divorce hearing with his wife Winnie.  Betrayed by the woman he loved, he states how lonely he felt.  My mentor mused on the seeming paradox of such a great man feeling that way.  

For me, it was simple, greatness and loneliness aren’t mutually exclusive, in fact, they often walk hand in hand.  Mandela was lonely because he was great and vice versa.

Churchill once wrote that people who can survive solitude (yes, a different concept) and by extension loneliness often achieve greatness.  He should know.  

I definitely experienced a lot of this in my journey.  I brought the girl I lit the candles for on much of it.  It was enough, but still difficult.  I’m no Mandela, but I told my mentor that what she told me was comforting.  That if this greatest of men could feel that way and be human, I also am allowed to as well.

Mandela, in old age, would make up excuses to go to the mall just to be around people.  To buy some unnecessary item like a pen, a shirt.  The father of a nation.  So great, so human, the image of God.