Lady Lifers in Pennsylvania Prison Sing for TED audience

Will I see

my family,

or die alone,

or die alone.

The juxtaposition between the fancy, fashionable TED context and this moving song from forever incarcerated women couldn’t be more excruciating. As the entitled audience cheered one after another who, after giving her prison number, incarceration time so far, real name, birthplace, and then the statement, with eyes full of tears “THIS IS NOT MY HOME” — I grew more and more uncomfortable. As should be.

These women long for either freedom or mercy. We need to recognize them, and all other remorseful prisoners, with both. Who among us has not “sinned” i.e., missed the the mark (originally an archer’s term)? Another word for crime or sin might be the Buddhist, “unskillful” behavior, i.e., to act unconsciously, i.e., blinded by emotion and/or memory, without mindfulness of either the real effect and/or the consequences. Skillful actions are those that “promote the happiness of both the individual and the community, synchronistically.“

Yes, who of us is not as guilty of unskillful action as any Other that we demonize? Who of us has not — in fury, scorn, disgust, condemnation — unconsciously, i.e., unskillfully, projected onto the Other that which lives within the self?

Via Kaya.