Story Incarcerated
I have stories I have been meaning to write but each time I put typed words to blank page, I am unsatisfied. They are good important stories that I feel I am not doing justice to.
But to me, the idea of traditional justice is very unpleasant. I do not want to toss my stories behind bars, effectively throwing away their existence until I decide to use them again. Confinement changes my stories. They become calculated and scared and teetering on the edge of wrongdoing.
Have you ever seen someone’s life improved by prison? I haven’t.
I do believe there is a time and place for imprisonment but none of my stories have committed violent crimes. Maybe, substance abuse counseling or anger management classes would be more fitting for them?
In this case, I am the judge and jury.
My stories come before me asking to be granted parole from their lives behind bars and sometimes I grant them their freedom, but sometimes, there's a catch. I agree that they can exit the cell that I have been keeping them in on the condition that they are exemplary in their existence.
I tell them that when I try to write them they will not put up a fight. They will go forth from fingertips with eagerness and will leave me feeling that kind of writer's high I get after writing something I pull from my gut. The editing process will be smooth and they will go live nicely on a page on my blog.
But, if they don’t meet my impossibly high parole standards they will be thrown back into prison. This happens nine times out of ten.
And then each time I try to pull one of my little stories out of the general population to give them a new chance at life they have deteriorated a bit more. They have a new face tattoo and have witnessed unspeakable events.
They are no longer the hopeful stories that entered the prison of my belly, but now hallow ideas.
If my stories were real human people I would argue that they shouldn’t be thrown away to begin with, that they are entitled to freedom and mistakes regardless of where they fall on poverty levels.