Once upon a time there was a place called “Nefarious Village”. There was a boy who lived there and his name was “Noble”. This village had mountains and caves that resembled the structure of India during the eighth century. Temples were decorated with images of happiness and idols from the past, that were shown dancing, and praising their god. The walls currently looked worn down, and made of crumbling stone and dirt. But through the crumbling stone and dirt you could also see that once upon a time, the walls and all of the images through the village were made up of pure gold because you could recognize pieces of gold trip poking through some of the dirt and stone. Many of the images which were carved by hand, were of huge personal significance, and resonated with the people’s culture. It appeared that the walls were in despair just as much as the remnants of the village. Noble had to learn how to be brave individually because his entire village was full of weakness and fear due to the siege and oppression from the evil that ensnared the town. The new settlers that dwelled in the village now were godless, and people with no purpose. The main goal of the new settlers was to make the people who remained, conform to their way of living. Inside of the village there was a snake pit, full of huge rocks and hills mounted on all four sides, and on the walls were numbers and names, that appeared to be of every person that fell victim to the pit. There were also numbers to account for how many people who died trying to make it out. These snakes inside of the pit were all sorts of colors. You could tell that they were abnormal, and destined to destroy the rest of the village by adding to their siege. One day Noble was walking by the pit, and he said to the snakes, “Good day to you all, I am Noble.” Almost instantly several snakes began to jump out of the pit with their mouths open. They were hissing and biting at him while making an introduction of what they represented. The first snake said, “I’m hatred.” The next snake said, “I’m disaster.” Another snake said, “I’m intimidations.” Then another snake said, “I’m drugs.” And another snake also said, “I’m disease.” The list went on and on of all things negative and discouraging. One snake that was larger than them all, and had horns on the top of its head tried to entice Noble by saying, “Let me make you a part of our pit, where you will have endless freedom to do whatever you want to do. You’ll never have to live by the boring standards like the rest of the village.” But every time Noble was able to dodge the snakes and make it to the other side of the village without being harmed or becoming one of those in the pit, after being bitten. Noble heard tales about being poisoned by the snake’s venom, and that once the venom penetrates your flesh you end up losing all of your human features, and become a snake as well. You also lose your morality and love for humanity. So even though he listened to their pitch he refused to be persuaded because he knew that he had more blissful intentions to restore his village.
On another day during a walk through the village Noble discovered a cave that was full of monstrous mountain bears that resembled gargoyles. They walked on two legs instead of four, and they had gray bodies, with leather manes that were black, and they had long tails that would drag through the dirt when they walked, and spread all over the ground around them were particles that looked like old, and chewed up bones. They had bowls filled with burgundy liquid that they were drinking from as if it was water. They dwelled inside of a cave that looked like a dirt packed, underground den. It also had a metal gate at the entrance. Noble was in good spirits as always. He spoke to the mountain bears saying, “Good day fellows, can I get you anything?” But Noble didn’t notice that the gate was unsecured. The monstrous bears jolted out of the cave and moved towards him with brute force. They began chasing him and clawing at him but he still managed to get away without being harmed. However, Noble observed, that once he was a certain distance away from the cave, that there was a purple line that the mountain bears would not cross. He also remembered the snakes wouldn’t jump past this purple line either. When he looked back at the cave he saw that there was one mountain bear off to the side, with a somber face, who didn’t participate in the attempted attack and who also appeared to be starving and dehydrated. Noble told himself that he would come and rescue this mountain bear…
A few days later Noble decided to go and visit the lonely mountain bear, to take him some food and bring him clean drinking water. He came across two ladies, that were wrapped in white garments from head to toe. You couldn’t even see their eyes. They even had fake eyes painted over the garments covering their faces. He knew that they were women by the shapes of their bodies. Noble saw them poking a mountain bear with a shovel, and it was the one he wanted to save. The mountain bear was crying as if it were a human, and not animal. Its wails and screams of torture filled the air, and not just torture of the flesh but as if it were torture of the soul, that one couldn’t terminate or quiet unless it had a specific remedy. The two ladies began burying the mountain bear alive with dirt. Neither of them saw that there was a bearded man standing far off watching them. Noble immediately ran up to the ladies and said, “Stop! This mountain bear is still alive! What you are doing is not right!” He didn’t even think about how the other mountain bears almost injured him. All he could do is feel pain because of the inhumanity he was witnessing in that moment. The ladies continued to cover the mountain bear with dirt. They didn’t even respond to Noble or take a glimpse at him to see how he looked, who he was, or what he was speaking about.
The bearded man walked over and he shewed the ladies away saying, “What you ladies are doing is not right. You need to stop what you are doing and leave right now!” The ladies dropped their shovels and left immediately without protesting his demands. Afterwards Noble and the bearded man started to remove the dirt from off of the mountain bear. They struggled to pull the huge mountain bear out of the ditch but eventually they succeeded. Immediately the mountain bear was revived without touch, resuscitation, or any survey of despair from Noble or the bearded man. The mountain bear began blinking its eyes looking around with a face full of gratefulness. When Noble turned around the entire village was behind him applauding him for his compassion, dedication, and bravery. Noble then turned to thank the bearded man who helped him but suddenly he was not there. It was strange how he vanished but then the mountain bear used both of its paws to grab Noble’s wrist and spoke these words: “Heavy is the head that wears the crown. But your neck was strengthened by the ropes of bigotry before you even existed.” The mountain bear then stood up and ran back into the village. A young boy ran over to Noble and said, “You have given all of us hope. Thank you.” Then everyone started chanting his name over and over again. “Noble! Noble! Noble!”
Noble stood up on the nearest rock and spoke to the people, telling them how he knew that they were suffering and that it was always his wish to rescue the land of his people with love and humanity. Women were weeping and they were clapping their hands. The men were praising him and hugging their sons while listening to Noble. They now had someone else as an example of how men, should raise men. From that day forward Noble became the emperor of the village. Before he stepped down from the rock, he lifted both hands in front of him, as if he was devoting his face upon the palms of his hands. He then whispered, “The god who clothes us with loving kindness and tender mercy may your aura always be upon us.” He took his hands and spread them over the entire crowd of people like a wand. Instantly they watched as the pits and caves returned to their normal golden state. The walls were replenished and restored from dirt, back into gold too, and all of the dirt patches began to flourish into leafy green grass. Even crops of vegetables and fruit began to grow from the ground and trees.
The evil snakes of the pit were dried out by the sun and turned into lotus flowers that the women of the village watered every day. They used juices from the flowers to make fragrances for Noble every month on the date that commemorated their village’s restoration. The monstrous mountain bears turned into human soldiers that guarded the gate upon entrance of the village. Every day the village ate dinner together and shared gifts with one another. It became the most talked about, and the most modeled village in the third world, and simply because they took care of one another, and provided for one another. God took care of them indefinitely.
The moral of this story is: No matter how many things around you, that may be trying to bring you down or deter you from the path you are on. Believe in yourself and your gifts. You have to stay vigilant and resist the temptation of pressure and persuasion, by holding on to your morals and standards of integrity. Eventually your patience will pay off. Everything you wish to accomplish will be reimbursed to you. You will be deserving of the rewards and fruits of your labor. If people are not encouraging you to follow your dreams, then they are not deserving of your time nor should they be privy to share the rewards you receive from chasing your dreams.
This story above was originally a dream that I had some time ago. After doing so much time in a negative manner, I was experiencing hardships while trying to get rid of my bad habits. I was trying to truly embrace my purpose and potential to become something greater in life in spite of me doing time. I spent the greater part of my years being possessed and enticed by the same criminality that landed me here. I did always embrace my intellect but the negativity always stood in the way of me being able to excel academically. After all of the traumatic events in my life, whether it was caused to me or by me, I began to realize that life never slows down and it will end for everyone someday. I realized how naive I was as a kid, seeing elderly people every day and still thinking I would never get old, until I actually started to get older.
I started to self-reflect and analyze the things that I needed to get rid of and truly practice peace, serenity, kindness, and certain forms of equality. On this new quest I had people who were jealous of me trying to bait me into fights to get me locked down because they knew my history. I had people trying to persuade me with great deals on bulks of drugs, that I could make triple the amount of money off of because they knew I was one of the best hustlers. I had guards trying to pay me in contraband to get rid of inmates who were snitching and ruining jail corruption. I even had people putting false accusations of rape on me, against women. I dealt with every form of evil. I learned that once you go up the hill, you have to come back down, and on your way down you will encounter everything you have sown on the way u, even worse or unknown things. However, I did not give up! I was able to be inspired by this dream because it was spirituality letting me know that God sees everything and I’m protected. All I had to do was stay silent, stay composed, and stay vigilant. This was what I continued to do. Suddenly all of the people who tried to make things hard for me ended up experiencing all types of failures, backfires, and setbacks. They grew even more miserable in their despair, self-hatred, and jealousy, while my peace increased. I genuinely felt like a child protected by its guardian. This is why I implement spirituality in everything that I do. The experiences that I’ve had in life proved to me divine intervention does exist. I have witnessed things that could not have happened any other way unless spirituality was involved. Looking back on my journey to get where I am. I am able to hate incarceration, and be a prison abolitionist but still see how it was able to get my attention and save my life. I am still alive! If I would’ve never been incarcerated who knows where I would be? Gratefully I was able to start a business and other platforms to encourage people who may resonate with my story. I am able to experience real love and connection with my family by letting go of all the anger, blame, and frustration. I am able to teach and guide my nieces and nephews in the right direction instead of negatively influencing them or allowing them to be enticed by the negativity that once intrigued me, as a child. I have broken many cycles that were upon my family. I also see the changes in my siblings and how they are inspired to work hard and do what’s right, by seeing my effort. This means the world to me!
Even some of my old friends I use to run with who thought there was no other way of life for us than being corner boys. They are now being inspired by my strength and mentality to be successful. We always knew we were of a higher stature than those average street punks who were committing crimes for attention or being followers. We were actually trying to reach a pinnacle in the criminal world in order to obtain false success, and escape urban statistics, all while keeping our urban authenticity. We were always considered men of business. We were just hustling backwards. But now that we can see that earning from a skill or talent is no different than selling an illegal product or that there is no reason to be ashamed of doing what’s right. We are implementing that same hunger and hustler’s mentality into our businesses, work ethic, legal commerce, and foundations. I love my life’s story. I embrace what I have endured. If I could do it all over again of course I would. Anyone who claims that they would do it all over the same is not telling you the truth, and is still living by false ego, to perpetuate criminality, and continue to please the audience that is enticed by stupidity.
Before I go, I do wish to add that I know sometimes we may have to be in situations where we must defend ourselves, defend someone we love, or we may even have to defend a stranger. This is human nature. Even the least violent animals will attack vultures to protect their nest or their young. But brothers and sisters, it is when we use violence as a condiment for entertainment, that makes us less than human beings. If we could reassess how we react to things, and realize we have the power in our hands to defuse many of the situations we were in simply with words, with wisdom, with worthiness, and with warmth. We would be able to see that life was made for living and dying naturally. Not to be abruptly taken due to the height of whatever emotion one may be feeling during a moment of discomfort. We have to learn how to deal with being uncomfortable with a better solution than elimination because things will never stay the same in life, and life will always be the thing that disrupts our comfort because life is always changing. So the question remains…when will we cease our moment not only to change ourselves but also adapting to the constant change around us too? We are more impactful if we join the fight for change together, instead of fighting against one another for the progression of our own selfish endeavors!
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