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Prizms and Prisons

Hey everybody, sorry for the hiatus but the Handyman is back in full effect. Guaranteeing more posts at a more consistent rate is my goal for year 3 of BLWNL. As my co-blogger and brother from another have previously written, it is wonderful that we have followers who challenge us to stay more consistent with our writing. Not only does it show that you all truly enjoy reading our blogs, but it’s motivation to keep on feeding the streets with jewels of knowledge from two of the most intellectual coons you will find haha. Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, let’s get to the nitty gritty.

So I have begun a new job a few months back that has me inside of prisons 5 days a week. Luckily my job is easy, all I have to do is bring the commisary, give it to the inmates and go back home. At times it can be stressful, but for the most part the inmates are pretty cool. I respect all the officers that have to work day in and day out inside of a prison. It can really change your outlook on life and change the way you view the world. This leads me to an interesting conundrum. Many men I have had discussions with in prison often regret the decisions that put them there in the first place. Many of them feel that they view themselves as a totally different person today than they did the day they first walked into prison.

Do you know what a prism does? It’s a medium that misrepresents whatever is seen through it. In layman terms, it distorts whatever image is put in front of it. Whether it’s splitting white light into colors or reshaping an apple’s reflection in front of it. It changes the way you will view the image, almost like those funny mirrors you find at carnivals. Inmates are prisms in prisons. More effectively, inmates remind me of prisms because of the way they are viewed by the outside world.

On the outside, they are robbers, murderers, drug dealers, etc. This is the view that we have of them originally, just first looking at the inmate. But once you get a better understanding of them, you learn that these are human beings. Men and women with real feelings and emotions and knowledge and regret. That original image of caged animals that you may have of them no longer exist. And under all that hard exterior, you find a lot of times a fragile person afraid of shattering to pieces trying to serve their time. This is another aspect that makes a prisoner a prism to me.

Prisms are very delicate because they are usually made of glass. As everyone knows, glass breaks and cracks very easily. The same can be said about inmates. They are very fragile while they are inside of prisons. One mistake can change their whole life, and because of lot of them know that, they are very careful of how they carry themselves. They understand the delicacy of their situation and most of them will go through hell and high water to prevent it from breaking and shattering. But the beautiful thing about a prism is that when white light passes through it, it can change white light to the colors of the rainbow.

The rainbow can represent the finish line for the inmate. It can represent the end for the inmate. Or more importantly, it can represent the final change of an inmate. Prisms can either distort the image of a person or it can change light into rainbows. It can show the person the final change it became, and realistically it can be a beautiful change. You know the beautiful thing about rainbows: they come at the end of a rainy day. So after all that dreadful weather, still there is something beautiful at the end of the day to look forward to.

So I challenge all of those who currently know an inmate or don’t personally know an inmate, understand that everyone’s situation is different and unique. Even though they are currently prisms of themselves in prison, hopefully in due time they will become the beautiful creatures that The Lord created them to be. Prisms and prisons have a lot more in common and are lot more linked than we may think. With that being said, don’t just strive to be good everyone, strive to be great. Peace love and blessings until next time.

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