One of the earliest books I read in when my sentence got started was the Tao Te Ching and Confusionism. these two books that were translated from thousand year old scrolls throughout the generations of humanity are all about morality and doing things for the greater good. one example is selflessness. A good story is a ditch that needed to be dug in a village. for whatever purpose this ditch needed to be dug for is never elaborated only that one person was being paid to dig and it needed to be done for the benefit of the entire village. now the sooner the ditch was dug the sooner the village could use it. one person digging would take longer thus depriving the village of its use for a longer period. if four or five people started helping dig regardless if they were getting paid the ditch would get dug sooner and everyone would benefit. this act of selflessness is for the greater good and in their view is a sign of great morality because even if the persons helping didn’t immediately get paid in money they would have the ditch to use for their benefit as soon as it was dug as well as the entire village and every one would be happy sooner and when the ditch was finished the person getting paid would receive his payment sooner thus in a way being in debt to the helpers for their kindness.
In prison we would all benefit if we all worked together to help one another make it through our sentences by putting aside our petty differences and misguided views of taking matters into our own hands by punishing those who are already being punished by being locked up in prison. nothing good can come from thinking you are better than the next person because your crime is different than the next person. we were all sentenced to prison and is the BOP’s eyes equally scum. this has been my idea for the past 19 years I’ve been locked up and for the next 5 I have yet to do. I want to make it easier for the next person by being someone to look up to and lend a helping hand should they deserve it, most people deserve it. for this reason I try to be polite and courteous at all times. I try to instill this attitude in others by example. sometimes I fall short but I always bounce back when I notice how rude I am being. I try to be selfless. it makes me feel good about myself and I like seeing others see me differently and respectfully because of it. we all got our problems but it does no good to project the bad feelings inside of ourselves onto others for no reason other than to let others know you are hurting inside. when this happens I respond with kindness and positivity until either they go away or their attitude changes for the better. it’s been a long road and I believe this attitude will help me in the long run when I get out.
