A few days ago Nelson Mandela died. A fighter for equality of his people in a harsh white regime with a colonial mindset, he spent 27 years in prison. During that generational period he went from being a fighter with weapons to a non-violent fighter. This transformation was surely not without inner pain and struggle. But he had learned from Gandhi, whose fight for India’s freedom started in South Africa, that in the end only the moral high road has a chance to win over demeaning powers. Gandhi, though, could hope to end colonial rule and drive the British out of India, while Mandela, in contrast, had to reconcile with the white segment of South African society and prove to them that the country can and must be shared.

In a recent Red Bench discussion, conducted under the auspices of iACT, a local interfaith organization, the topic was US versus THEM, or can we create a truly inclusive society? Even though eight round tables discussed this issue, it seemed the crux of the topic was circumvented. As humans we have a tendency to draw a circle of safety around ourselves. We may include family and friends, maybe members of our congregation and a few colleagues, but beyond that lies the great “THEM.” When our survival depended on exclusion, this may have been a natural response. But our world has grown. We buy goods and food from all over the world, we connect through various media with far-flung relatives and friends, whose circles may be entirely different from ours. From barn-raising to cooking a holiday feast we have found out that we go farther with cooperation. Our circle has to become bigger in this interconnected world.

This may be the greatest lesson of Nelson Mandela’s life. He came out of prison as a man without hatred and with the newly acquired language of his white countrymen. He knew that only through a long road towards cooperation the country could achieve reconciliation. Intercultural understanding is exactly that.