THE PRISONER’S BOON

 

In mythology, when travelers return from a perilous journey from a faraway country, they have acquired insight and illumination. They return with a boon, a benefit, a gift to give the community.

 

It is meant to be the same when a prisoner returns from the faraway country of prison. What is the boon, the benefit, the gift the returning Ascender can bring? 

 

First, the Ascender brings her or himself. If a woman or a man has refined their soul and acquired character and integrity, it is no small gift to give the community! 

                 

Second, the returning Ascender has made exceptional progress in achieving Society’s Standards of Excellence – competencies and skills to help build the community. 

                 

Third, Ascenders return with a track record of lifting the lives of acquaintances.

                 

Ascenders are no longer takers but givers.

 

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RETURNING ASCENDERS

                 

Mr. Ben: 

“Prison education can be just as valuable and informative as one obtained from a major university. I am learning life lessons which, in the long run, may be as important to me as what I could learn elsewhere. Simplicity, personal freedom, spirituality, and forgiveness are things that cannot be learned within the traditional walls of a classroom and from a professor. Many people spend tens of thousands of dollars for education but will not experience what I am feeling and experiencing. At the end of my sentence, if I leave with nothing to show for it, this was only a bad period of my life.”

                 

Mr. Hirsch: 

“If I never give up and keep my focus on the future and not my past, others who have just met me will only know the man or woman I am, not who I was.”