MANDELA AND ME
While reading Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, I felt inspired by his example for several reasons. First, during my incarceration, his example of overcoming racism motivates me to practice the same. Second, his example of regular exercise while incarcerated motivates my long-term exercise goals. Author Brown notes: "His first love was distance running. For most of his adult life, Mandela was a regular jogger — an unremarkable feat, perhaps, were it not for the fact that he did it without ever leaving the eight-by-seven-foot prison cell to which he was confined for 18 of his 27 years behind bars."
Upon concluding Long Walk to Freedom, I realize much we have in common. Mandela and me:
1. Love long-distance running and exercise.
2. Have five children, kind of a sixth. We both resent rules prohibiting visiting with our children while incarcerated.
3. Arrested on August 5th.
4. Served approximately the same amount of time at the same ages.
5. Experience the law from both sides.
6. Appalled at the criminal justice system and prisons. Both of us work as a legal assistant in prison.
7. Love solitude and hate loneliness. We both love studying and appreciate time to think.
8. Hate racism more than we dislike prison.
9. Made "little rocks out of big rocks" in prison.
10. Helped start a garden in prison.
11. Find comfort in routine and immediately create calendars to mark time.
12. Write memoirs in prison.
13. Maintain a dream journal and share meaningful entries in letters to loved ones.
14. Fear our photos, letters, and memories will be lost. We have few possessions in prison but accumulate substantial books and papers.
15. Yearn to pay respects at our mother's grave.
By identifying our similarities, I feel inspired by Nelson Mandela's example to persist through extended incarceration, help others, preserve precious memories, and use this time to learn. | SB