The fourth thing I learned
that I want to share is the power of transformation.
It's the ability to emerge from the cocoon of spiritual,
mental, and emotional immaturity into your full, actualized
self. Now, when I was having all these epiphanies when I
was in solitary confinement, I knew that they would mean
nothing until I got released. Until I got put to the test.
Until I was given the opportunity to challenge the things
that I said I now believed in. And so, in 2004, after
four and a half years in the most deplorable, dehumanizing,
degrading conditions known to mankind in our world, I
walked out of solitary confinement.
The expectation was that I would be the old me.
That whenever conflict arose, I would respond in a way
that wasn't healthy. You know, the yards in prison is a
very violent environment. And, you know, might makes
right. So when I get out, I knew that there was gonna be
challenges. And one day, true to what I knew about the
nature of the environment, I was met with a challenge.
There was a guy who came to prison, he was a community
activist, he had came for some trumped up charges, and I
was given the responsibility, just by virtue of my senior
status on the yard, to ensure that he had -- you know, he
was safe wherever he went in the prison, and that he was
respected. So I'm escorting him to chow, chow hall is the
little place where they serve this nasty food, but I'm
escorting him, and we're standing in line, and a guy
literally just jumps through and cuts the line. Now, in
prison that's enough to get you stabbed. Or at minimum,
hit upside the head, whatever the case may be. And there
was that moment when I felt disrespect not to my authentic
self but to the prison mask that I had wore for so many
years. And I was, like, how do I respond? Because
everybody's looking in the kitchen. Everybody's in the chow
hall looking. How is he gonna respond to this? This is
Big Socco in the yard. This is, you know, the guy. How
does he respond to this? And what I did is I paused. And
I looked at him. And I saw the little boy in him. And I
told myself that transformation comes when we can see the
broken child in any person we encounter. So from moving
forward, every time found myself in conflict, I always made
sure I looked at the broken child inside the person.
Because that was their authentic self. And I reminded
myself that if I only responded to the authentic self, I
can only respond out of kindness, empathy, and compassion.