Corey was an interesting kid. He was bright, well-read, and extremely
polite. He and I would talk each day,
for hours some days, about politics, history, religion. Corey was a loner with the exception of
dealing with me, and feared by a good number of the young Richmond inmates.
Every day, Corey would do 500 pushups in his cell, then sit
lotus position for an hour meditating. He
left the gang life before his last arrest and had visions of completing drug
court and going back to school to finish his degree.
On the day I was served with divorce papers I lay on my bunk
and covered my face so no one could see me cry.
I was as distraught and full of despair as I’d ever been in my life. I was
alone and felt completely hopeless. I don’t
know why, but later that afternoon I walked down to Corey’s cell. He was on his bunk reading. “Mr. Larry.
What’s up?” I entered his cell,
leaned on the sink and in a choking voice using all my willpower to not
breakdown, told him my wife had filed for divorce and I had decided to not
contest it. I felt like a fool, I told
him. I’d voluntarily signed everything
over to her 30 days earlier against the advice of my lawyer, my therapist, and
numerous friends; all of whom said “she’ll drop you as soon as you give her the
assets”.
Corey looked at me and simply asked “do you love her?” When I said yes, he told me I did the right
thing. He then reached under his
mattress and pulled out a book. “Read
this”, he said to me, “and remember you’re too smart ant too decent to give
up. You can come back.”
The book he handed me was by Dr. Charles Stanley, senior
pastor of the First Baptist Church in Atlanta and it contained his message that
God had a plan for each of us. He never
gave up on us. The beginning of the book
detailed Dr. Stanley’s own experience with divorce. That night I read the book cover to
cover. I began listening to Dr. Stanley’s
radio broadcasts Sunday evenings at the jail.
When I arrived at this facility and purchased a TV I began watching his
church service every Sunday morning at 6:00.
Corey’s conversation with me that day and the book he gave me may have,
quite literally, saved my life. I’ve aged
in this place and known deep despair, but I return often to what Corey and I
talked about that day and Dr. Stanley’s book.
I thought about that this week – about enduring and fighting
back – as a number of the young guys came up to check on me after learning of
my brother’s death. These guys reached
out to me because; as one young kid told me “you cared about us when no one
else did”. It reminded me of one of my
favorite movies, “The Natural”. Robert Redford
portrays Roy Hobbs, an aging baseball player who suddenly appears on the scene
and leads a perennial loser to the pennant.
Hobbs, however, has a secret.
Years earlier, as the rising young hitter in baseball, he’d had an
encounter with a woman. She shot him,
leaving him for dead in a hotel.
I think a good deal about Roy Hobbs. You come to prison and you’re written
off. People let their real feelings
show. Love isn’t really love. Friendship, loyalty don’t matter. It’s as though you are shot and left for
dead.
But then, you try to be yourself, give a damn about guys who
others have written off, and occasionally it crosses your mind good can come of
all this. I felt that the other day
talking to the guys after my brother’s death.
And I thought back to my conversations with Corey.
And Roy Hobbs? He
hits the game winning homerun and then left for home, back to the woman who
really loved him and the son he never knew he had. Of course that’s a movie. They’re always happy endings in movies.
No comments:
Post a Comment