Do you know what day it is on Monday?

This question became a kind of gentle joke in our family after one year when my parents repeated it over and over again. And yes, that particular Monday was special in that it was their wedding anniversary. They were married for just under 60 years. That's a long time to be together in a loving relationship, which theirs was.

So today it's Nelson Mandela's 93rd birthday. Mandela Day was, I believe, instituted in 2006 and is celebrated in countries around the world. This morning I heard a radio interview with a man from his 'clan' who used to see him walking to the law courts in Johannesburg every morning in the early 'Fifties. Knowing the city, I could picture that very well. Sadly, I've never seen Mandela in person, although after he left Robben Island he was in a prison not far from where we were farming at the time.

Anyhow, the suggestion is that we do some good today.... 67 minutes worth in commemoration of the 67 years he worked for liberation from apartheid and reconciliation afterward.

I'm planning to take some discarded clothing to Goodwill. A small gesture, I know, but I believe any intentional act helps in the larger scheme of things.

Oh, and I'll be thinking and working on reconciliation. Not in real life, but for a scene in my novel-in-progress.