Forging Ahead

May 8, 2010

Even if I don't feel terribly inspired, I want to write. But this morning it's hard to help but feel inspired. I want to reference the blog of an inmate friend, Shannon Clark. The link is here but I want to repeat it, http://perseveringprisonpages.blogspot.com. I type his blog and the most recent entry was so very encouraging. Shannon is a man who has had every conceivable disadvantage in life. He has spent half of his life in prison. His father was abusive, mother a drug addict who encouraged her son to use. I can't fathom growing up in such a situation. Yet he's found the answer to healing and life that so many people don't find. It's all about understanding and facing our limitations, then not being bound by them and in turn helping others to be free. He has dreams and hopes, is not afraid to wish for them and won't let that hope die.

My other ex-inmate friend, Shaun, is also going places and doing things that most people never do, http://jonsjailjournal.blogspot.com. I am looking forward to hopefully celebrating with my friend by attending a launch party for his new book. Another person who though he had good circumstances in life and a great family, made a terrible situation into a blessing for many and never gave up hope. He pushes on and keeps writing, talking and working for inmates' rights and betterment of their situations.

These men, these lives, should have been a liability to society but they won't be and aren't. And they give me hope for my own son. There is life during and after prison, and ways to move on in that experience that works for the good. I am so proud of these men. They are the first to admit they did wrong and earned punishment, but they were not stopped by it. Isn't that really the point in the end, redemption, a new life, penitence that leads to salvation-and I think a full life of service and determination is the best gift a person can give the world. I do hope for this for my son.