I have known both of you all your lives, have carried your Daddy in my arms and on my shoulders, kissed and spanked him and watched him learn to walk. I don’t know if you’ve known anybody from that far back; if you’ve loved anybody that long, first as an infant, then as a child, then as a man, you gain a strange perspective on time and human pain and effort. Other people cannot see what I see whenever I look into your father’s face, for behind your father’s face as it is today are all those other faces which were his. Let him laugh and I see a cellar your father does not remember and a house he does not remember and I hear in his present laughter his laughter as a child. Let him curse and I remember him falling down the cellar steps, and howling, and I remember, with pain, his tears, which my hand or your grandmother’s so easily wiped away. But no one’s hand can wipe away those tears he sheds invisibly today, which one hears in his laughter and in his speech and in his songs.Anonymous
About This Quote
This quote is a great reminder of the pain and struggles that we all go through from day to day. Understanding this pain is the first step in learning from it. The longer that we live, the more things that we will see and experience, and the more things that we will know. In spite of this difficulty, however, Nelson Mandela should be reminded that he has helped others through his life and should be encouraged to continue helping others in the future.
Source: The Fire Next Time
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