Finished reading it today. As impressive as the contest was between the old man and the marlin, followed by the harrowing fights between the old man the sharks, my favorite part of the novella was the devotion between the old fisherman and the little boy he'd taught to fish. That type of love is something special. I felt a lump in my throat and my eyes watered at the end. I know only four people who love me that much. My parents, my Grandma and my girlfriend.
On Wednesday, my girlfriend said she was reading Hemingway's Classic, T
he Old Man and the Sea. It's the little novel that won him a Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature. I decided to read it too so we could talk about it.Finished reading it today. As impressive as the contest was between the old man and the marlin, followed by the harrowing fights between the old man the sharks, my favorite part of the novella was the devotion between the old fisherman and the little boy he'd taught to fish. That type of love is something special. I felt a lump in my throat and my eyes watered at the end. I know only four people who love me that much. My parents, my Grandma and my girlfriend.
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Now I'm reading Moyers on America, a book I'd seen in catalogs and almost bought on countless occassions. I remember watching Bill Moyers on NOW and feeling impressed by his view of America. I made a point every Friday to watch him on PBS. Moyers was the prophet and preacher of a brand of democracy that I trusted. He understood the need for the voices of the little people to speak up and guard our democracy. He spoke out against government corruption. His messages spoke to me.
For most of my life I have felt like one of the little people, a minority from a tough neighborhood. Bill Moyers spoke of a position that people like me should have in the political process. I wish that I had been listening. Instead I got infected by voices of criminal discontent. I know where my poor citizenry originated. What I like so much about Bill Moyers when he was alive was that he showed me how to think realistically and react productively to the things that are wrong within the system. I wish that my uncles had taught me how to think realistically and react productively to life's problems when I was young. If they had, my potential would have taken me much farther. Heck, in an alternate version I might have even run for office and been interviewed by Bill Moyers for what I was doing to improve my neighborhood. |
AuthorPaul Pommells has been an inmate of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for more than twenty years, and has learned much about himself, his fellow inmates, and where one can find the hope and power to change. Poetry Corner
Paul and other inmates & friends bare their souls in words here.
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