"Sometimes readiness and change come only because of all the
heartache and
pain and deep
frustration that has gone on before. That is to say, every sin, every disease, every disappointment, every failure, every bit of difficulty that has ever
touched our lives have all been a very
necessary part of our entire experience
without which we would not have been made
ready or
prepared to receive the unfoldment of a truly
spiritual message. And I say this
knowing, just as you
know, that some of us have been
down and are presently
still down, into the very
depths of
human existence... And yet whatever the
degree of difficulty each one of us has had, then it was perhaps
that degree of difficulty that each one of us
needed!"
- Rubin "Hurricane" Carter
This was written in a letter on April 21, 1982. Rubin Carter, a successful black boxer living in Paterson, New Jersey, had by then been in jail since 1967 for a crime that he did not commit. Fabricated evidence, unreliable witnesses, and racist officers and lawyers stole his wife, children, career, and freedom. But instead of accepting his fate and conforming to the debilitated life that most inmates lead, Carter's hopeful and promising outlook dominate his thinking. Kind of puts things in perspective, huh?
