Nothing is black or white, no matter how much we try to make it so. No matter how we try to organize things in the world there are always exceptions or contradictions. I’d love a simple clear cut world but this will never be the case. There are too many interconnections and contradictions that make the world a grey area. A clear cut black and white world would leave out all of the (what I consider pointless) debating as to what needs to be done. A time consuming process that often seems to lead itself in circles but something that exists because of all the little nuances that are present in our world. Every little variable needs to be accounted for in our decisions, and no matter how much we try to account for each there will always be something unaccounted for. This having to take the world how it is and not try to simplify it is something that is not easy to take in life, theres always the question of “well why not do this instead of debating over that?”and the answer is that I’m always looking from my perspective as to how things should be, and while it would arguably (in my opinion) be better if the world did things according to one perspective and decisively… it wouldn’t always wind up being the best thing.
Mandela was able to accept these nuances that exist in the world. I’m sure there are times when he wished that everyone could see things his way but he realized and accept that he can’t make everyone see with one eye. And he never held peoples perceptions against people, he knew that to work within the nuances you can’t let others get to you. He grew accustomed to the grey that exists and learned not to take it as a whole when trying to achieve something because you cant not change everything to fit you. One of his greatest strengths was being able to clearly define his end goal and find the most practical way to achieve it within all of the nuances of the world. This is something that everyone could do with. Learning to accept life for what it is, and focusing in on a single aspect that we want to change rather than trying to fit the world in its entirety to our needs.