Today I didn't knit until late in the evening. As I had promised myself, I celebrated the halfway mark of Bear knitting at Barnes and Noble Cafe. They didn't have chocolate cheesecake but their keylime cheesecake was delicious. I bought the CD "An Evening with Harry Belafonte and Friends" and sat outside reading, listening to music, thinking about the next fifty Bears. I had bought the book "Nelson Mandela's Favorite African Folktales" in preparation for the second part of the project and spent a couple of hours with lions and snakes and mythical beasts of African folklore.
Nelson Mandela has been my hero all my adult life. When I was nineteen I listened to the stories of South African students who discussed him with great passion. After his imprisonment in 1963 I followed the political developments in South Africa with sadness until his release in 1990. When he visited the US I heard him speak in Oakland. When he became president of South Africa I cried. Now I want to listen to the ancient voice of the African storyteller in the tales Mr. Mandela selected for the children of the world.
Into the first fifty Bears I knitted some of my own feelings and ideas. The next fifty I see as teachers who will allow me to learn more about Africa. And when Mother Bear sends all 100 of them to their destinations far away from here, I hope that they will carry the magic of the storyteller to the children in need of companionship.
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