How could a pebble become your best friend? I found out while listening to an
interview on NPR about a recently
closed state reform school in Florida.
Dozier’s School for Boys was for juvenile delinquents, and the school
was notorious for beating, torturing, and even murdering its young inmates. I was struck by something that one of
the former victims of this American nightmare said on the radio. It was central to the theme of
consciousness.
One of the former victims—he was released a half century
ago—told what happened to him at the Dozier School for Boys. On the third day after his arrival the authorities sent him to
what was know as the “White House.” It was actually a space reserved for
physically torturing and abusing the kids. You could be sent to the White House for any reason or no
reason.
Our narrator on NPR hadn’t done anything. He had no idea what was happening to
him. Mercilessly and sadistically he
was beaten with a leather strap by his reformers. And they kept it up. He broke down as he spoke, I could hear the
pain in his voice. That was his introduction to this state reform school that
stayed open for about a century. They are still digging up corpses of boys that
were murdered at this Floridian state institution.
There was something else he wanted to say. Fifty years later, he recalled, feeling
helpless and brutally treated as he was being beaten, for some reason, as the
strap came down on him, he fixed his attention on a particular pebble on the
ground. By holding his attention
on that pebble, he found he was able to endure the blows they were gleefully
inflicting on him. He struggled to keep his mind elsewhere. They kept beating
him and he kept his attention riveted on that pebble. When they let him go, he
picked up the pebble, and put it in his pocket. He has kept that pebble for
half a century, he said; it had profound meaning for him.
He didn’t elaborate. To my mind, the pebble was a symbol of
his own spirit, the power within himself he didn’t know he had, and that he
learned could serve him in the future. It is a skill we can gain through practice. Meditation, for
example. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves that we have it--the power to
direct and hold our consciousness on a single point. This ability to concentrate implies the power to transcend
even the most stressful times.
So the question
is, what is your pebble? Your point
of contact with your inner resource? The human skills you need to sail through
the maelstroms of conscious life?
2 comments:
Great post, Mike. I recall a story you once told in class about a Viet Nam POW (?) who, in response to the beatings meted out by his captors, would sometimes have sudden Out-of-body experiences that would bring great relief from his pain.
I want to thank Dr Emu a very powerful spell caster who help me to bring my husband back to me, few month ago i have a serious problem with my husband, to the extend that he left the house, and he started dating another woman and he stayed with the woman, i tried all i can to bring him back, but all my effort was useless until the day my friend came to my house and i told her every thing that had happened between me and my husband, then she told me of a powerful spell caster who help her when she was in the same problem I then contact Dr Emu and told him every thing and he told me not to worry my self again that my husband will come back to me after he has cast a spell on him, i thought it was a joke, after he had finish casting the spell, he told me that he had just finish casting the spell, to my greatest surprise within 48 hours, my husband really came back begging me to forgive him, if you need his help you can contact him with via email: Emutemple@gmail.com or add him up on his whatsapp +2347012841542 is willing to help any body that need his help.
Website: http://emutemple.website2.me/
Post a Comment