Learning Violin Helped Me Survive Prison [themarshallproject.org]

Alicia Doktor 7/10/184:00 AM

First, let me situate you: doors clanging, people yelling, guards barking. The noise in prison is non-stop, and nighttime is often louder than daytime, because at night many inmates cry out, haunted by their trauma.

I often felt like joining them. For the first three years, the cacophony in here drove me absolutely bonkers. I walked around like a zombie — neither dead nor alive. I had a long beard and no one to talk to. My hygiene was so bad that a newfound friend counseled me on the importance of keeping my face washed and teeth clean.

Over time, I started to adjust, and my life began to improve. I became a gardener. I saw firsthand how life started as a seed, grew into a plant, and then died off in the fall. I realized that is exactly what happened to me: Part of me had died in those first few years, but I did not see what was next.

[For more on this story by JASON NARADZAY, go to https://www.themarshallproject...ed-me-survive-prison]

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Robert OlcottMember

I'm reminded of a quote in a [UUA] 1973 calendar: "The sounds of the Earth go unheeded, and one man strikes the strings of a violin, and our souls rise-as if on wings." (There's more to this story, involving a prison chaplain, who referred to an inmate as a "Heretic"-in his [written] 'recommendation' to the parole board.)

7/10/1810:25 AM

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