It is the 199th day of the year. 166 days to go. How are you spending them?

Today would be Nelson Mandela's 100th birthday.

He is held in deep respect within South Africa, where he is often referred to by his Xhosa clan name, Madiba, which means "Father of the Nation."

Mandela's given name was Rolihlahla, which his schoolteachers were unable to pronounce. One of them started calling him Nelson after British admiral Horatio Nelson, and the name obviously stuck. Rolihlahla, by the way, means "pulling the branch of a tree" or "troublemaker."

Mandela wasn't removed from the US terror watch list until 2008 -- at age 89.

He made good trouble.

"I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death.”

Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.”