Saturday, December 13, 2008
Writing blogs every day has helped me through prison. I was not a writer before the term began. I've found the activity cathartic. By committing myself to this responsibility, I hope to shed some light into the dark world of imprisonment I want others to see that through discipline, we have options to make contributions to the world.
Make no mistake, writing regular blog entries requires real discipline. I wake with thoughts of my responsibility and think about topics that may be of interest to others. I study books on writing. My beloved mother, Tallie, makes this independent learning project possible by sending me new books regularly. In my locker, I have the wonderful books On Writing Well, The Elements of Style, 100 Ways to Improve Your Writing and many others. I also have dictionaries and thesauruses, all of which come through the mail, courtesy of my mother's generous love.
Without my mom, these blog posts would not have been possible. As a federal prisoner, I have no access to computers or the internet. I write my blog entries in long hand and send them home each day. My mother takes times to type my entries, then loads them onto the web. She would rather be walking my dog, or just about anything besides typing these constant humiliating reminders that her youngest son serves time in a federal prison camp. The discipline maintaining a blog is as much a commitment for my mom as it is from me. For her devotion, and for so many other reasons, I feel grateful to her.
