For Most People

For most people
prisons tend to be things over there,
those places we look at but don't go near.

We catch a scent
of their edges and wonder
about their centers, their insides.

For most people
they are places of secrets
we don't care to uncover,
to learn about,
regions of vast darkness
best left to themselves.

Ignorance has no conscience.
It leaves hardly a slick
on the surface of the mind.

Punctuation Marks

It's high time we praise the humble comma! Add this unpretentious little mark to the present clause, and, suddenly, the mind is quite literally given pause to think; take it out if you wish or forget it and the mind is deprived of a resting place. Yet the comma gets no respect. It's almost like a writer's smudge. Small, we claim, is beautiful (especially in the age of the microchip). Yet what is so often used and so rarely recalled as the comma - unless it be the breath itself?

Punctuation marks are the road signs placed along the highway of our communications - to control speeds, provide directions, and prevent head-on collisions. A period has the unblinking finality of a red light; the comma is the flashing yellow light that asks us only to slow down; and the semi-colon is a stop sign that tells us to ease gradually to a halt, before gradually starting up again. By establishing the relations between words, punctuation establishes the relations between people using words.

Punctuation, then, is a pillar that holds society upright. (A run-on sentence, its phrases piling up without division, is as unsightly as a sink piled high with dirty dishes).

Punctuation scores the music in our minds, gets our thoughts moving to the rhythm of our hearts. It's the notation in the sheet music of words, telling us where to rest, or when to raise our voices; telling us that the meaning of our words lies not so much in the units but in the pauses, the pacing, and the phrasing. It adjusts the tone and color and volume till the feeling comes into perfect focus.

Thus, all these tiny scratches give us breadth and depth. A world that has only periods is a world without inflections. It's a world without shade. It's a music without sharps and flats.

A comma can let us hear a voice break, or a heart. Punctuation, in fact, is a labor of love.

Connections

It was a rainy day on the prison yard, an uncommon sight in the Arizona desert. For some reason I became intent on watching the rain drops on the window of my dormitory. Two separate drops, pushed by the wind, merged into one for a moment and then divided again - each carrying with it a part of the other. Simply by that momentary touching, neither was what it had been before. And as each one went on to touch other raindrops, it shared not only itself, but what it had gleaned from the other.

From this metaphor, I was reminded that we never touch people so lightly that we do not leave a trace. Just as these raindrops repeatedly merged and divided, we can see that we, too, are unique and we are One. Conventional wisdom tells us that we are separate; higher wisdom informs us that we are One. A shift in perception reveals that we are the same Consciousness manifesting in different bodies; the way leaves are a part of the same tree.

Can we get the truth of our connections? Do we understand that we are the starving child in an impoverished ghetto, the prison lifer who will never be free? The highest and the most humble are we, wearing rags of torn cloth and robes of gold. Where the fool or the sage go, there we go. We are the Light that shines through the eyes of all beings, truly One.

As we awaken to our kinship with life in all its complexity, paradoxical ness, irony and humor, we begin to feel a deep connection with all that exists. The world becomes infinitely more harmonious and peaceful. Our heroics become a fearless love for the whole of creation, leaving nothing out.

Our future and the future of all humanity is a path into the Light, into the growing realization of the unity with our Creator and all of creations. And what lies beyond is beyond description.

© 2001-07, Tom Brown

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Charles "Tom" Brown was a successful investor who did very well in real estate, oil, and the stock market. Friends began asking him to invest for them, too. And he did. Things went well, and more people heard about his abilities and wanted to be included in the investment strategies he had devised. All went well until there was a dramatic change in the market. All that went up turned down, and Tom wanted everyone to still have a profit - his big mistake - as he wanted to be well thought of. Tom was accused of defrauding investors. Although it was shown that he had never diverted any money for himself other than a modest commission, through unbelievable mishandling by an incompetent or dishonest attorney, what should have been a one-year sentence became a 17-year sentence. At the time of judgment, Tom was 62 years of age.

The purpose of Tom's blog is not to dwell on the injustice, but rather, to show the incredible unfoldment of consciousness in a man who has taken this sentence and created a workshop of Soul and Spirit out of it. His words are designed to help us see into life and do better with what we've been given. Tom's Beyond the Wall blog is located at www.Beyondthewall.blogs.com.  If you would like to write to Tom, he appreciates correspondence.  He does not have access to a computer but can be reached via Charles "Tom" Brown, # 140237, ASPC - Lewis, Barchey Blue - D2 - E5, P.O.Box 3200, Buckeye, AZ, 85326.