This group will remember a foundational document written by members of the Order I received as a "Prologomena of the Spirit Movement" eons ago. Some of the phrases I use in this article (without apologies since we never claimed originality for whatever we write!) are lifted out of the beginning section of that piece of literary achievement. Madiba welcomes the world It is too early to sing of the wise men who visited the infantchild of Bethlehem in the Christmas story of the season - Gaspar (Sheba),Melchor (Arabia), and Balthazar (Egypt), but we could not avoid the thought as Ilearned that Clinton, Bush, Obama and Jimmy Carter (US), Cameron, Brown, Blairand John Majors (UK), are descending into South Africa to attend Mandela'sscheduled memorial service. The first batch were dignitariespaying homage to a messianic royal (Matthew and Luke gospels are not meant tobe history), while the second batch consisted of three ex-Presidents and asitting top Executive of the only superpower of the world, the United States ofAmerica, joined by the four living Prime Ministers of Britain, and a host ofworld leaders and dignitaries around the world confident enough not to have alocal coup in their absence! Of the U.S. in the second group,they came to pay tribute to an ex-felon who was considered a terrorist until2008, who spent 27 years behind bars, but managed to keep a country from civilwar, and let the world know through his being that the value of one's skin coloris not even that deep compared to compassion and grace. A methodological side trip: thetriune mindset is an occidental Hegelian heritage of thesis, antithesis, andsynthesis. The yin-yang of the taijifocuses on the center pivot point holding the balance of the whole, while the feng shui's east-west-north-south axisis made whole by the fifth area, the wufang, the center. The essence of oriental balancing centerand harmonizing middle counts a lot. Madibastraddled the gamut of both methods, plus. In the history of South Africa thatcame into being through the imperial designs of Europe, it brought India andChina into the picture mixed in to the Bantu underpinnings, the influences of ArabicNorth Africa and the Middle East, the dominance of the Teutonic-Slavic mindset,and the rapacious fingers of corporate capitalism of London-NewYork-Tokyo-Singapore, we have the various strands that came into play in the vauntedMadiba unifying 'magic'. Massive changes racked the previouscentury. It went through two upheavalsunprecedented in scope and intensity in the history of humankind. Violent as the two World Wars were, the moreintense disturbance is in the depth of human consciousness itself. Its radicalness matches only the vastness ofits scope. For the human race ischallenged to invent anew what it means to be human. This defines the revolutionary character ofour time. Nelson Mandela is preeminently oneof our revolutionaries whose personal existence wrestled with the civilizationalconvulsion occurring. Taking the tensions of a material-centered economy andthe political strife of a multi-racial constituency, he resolved in his beingthe crisis of human identity and vocation, and transformed the revolutionarybent on destruction to the authentic old sage of the bush that only had simplegrace and common compassion to share with fellow human beings. He showed in his being a new fabric ofhumanness that began a work in progress now operating in many lives around theworld. We number with the window washersamong the servants in that entourage. Many in the world are overwhelmed tothe point of collective trauma, a failure of nerve, expressed in such outburstsas recently seen in Kiev and Bangkok, and not too long ago, in Syria. Hoping to retain the ennui of the familiar,many hang on to the illusory comfort of more sophisticated arsenals in home closets,or more statutes to bar entry of the stranger into the town's square. Many engage in frantic activism pitting groupsagainst each other for the therapy of little gains and momentary reliefs. But the malaise of our time is notrevolution itself; it is the fear-filled refusal to embrace radical change thatmaintains human economies based on sustainable survival rather than profit forthe few, that meet needs before obeisance to the altar of hyped wants. Its cousin is the denial that there is such amalaise at all. There is no escape for individualsor for humankind. We are all in thistogether. That is why a Mandela is suchglaring demonstration of what is possible. The man had the resource, the reason and the skill to be an instrumentof mass destruction, but instead, he offered the proverbial other cheek tothose who despised what he stood for, and proceeded to construct in a delicatebalancing and unifying manner the structures of care and the services ofcompassion that a world in pain sorely needed. That the United States and the UKdeign to send their preeminent leaders to join the world whose Secretary-Generals,Presidents, Prime Ministers, and reigning monarchs are attending to bid thisold grandpa adieu on his way to hisgrave, it may just start the process to forge new patterns of social relations,to create new symbols of personal meaning, to harness the deeper level of humanconsciousness, and to release new tides of creativity into the total humanprocess. Madiba's life triggered our hope. In there, we'll stay a long while. Jaime Vergara pinoypanda2031@aol.com yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!