A Bunk, A Desk, and A Toilet

Things I learned, contemplated, while in a bunk, desk, and yes the toilet.

Cell Diagram

To say a prison cell is smaller than your bathroom doesn't describe a prison cell adequately. In Texas, there are older prisons called 'red brick' units. They are called 'red brick' because f the color of the bricks. The cells are so small. I can sit on my bunk and put my feet flat on the wall across the cell.

The toilet in the cell is located at the head of the bunkbeds. Let me paint a picture, imagine. You are trying to sleep, and your cellmate is sitting right next to your head, taking care of biological business at 2 AM in the morning. Talk about waking up from dreaming about your favorite lady to a nightmare next to your head. Not just the sight by the smell (whew!).

Prison visitation

We all want to look nice to our visitors. We go through the ritual of washing our clothes by hand in the toilet. Yes, I have to wash my clothes in the toilet. Then while our clothes are still wet, we iron all the wrinkles out. No, they don't sell iron in the commissary. There are several ways to iron our clothes; here are two I have used.

Ironing Method One

You begin by wiping the concrete floor clean, then lay your clothes on the floor. Take a hotpot top, equivalent to a metal coffee pot. The hotpot top is about the size of a jar of peanut butter top. You take the hotpot top, press it flat and hard, and rub all the wrinkles out of the pants and shirt. Then hang them on a make-shift clothesline. Clotheslines are made of shoestrings. Tie each end of the shoestrings from one end of the cell to the other. Then let the clothes dry.

Ironing Method Two

If you are lucky, you have a cell where the walls are painted and not chipping. You can press the pants and shirts against the wall with the hotpot top. When you do this, my pressure pressing into the pants and shirt will cause them to stick to the wall. I let them dry while stuck on my wall. When the pants and shirt are dry, you fold them and put them under the mattress. While laying on my bunk at night, I anticipate the weekend visit and seeing family with the clothes between the mattress underneath me.

Nighttime Musings

I have learned valuable lessons while lying on the bunk about money; who doesn't like money. Think about how you would answer. Would you take it if someone gives you $100 with no strings attached? Yeah, no-brainer, you would take it fast. Let's look at the same situation, but now that same $100 is torn in half, then taped back together, would you still take it? Still Free Money. Retaking the situation if the $100 was rubbed in dirt, mud and balled up, flatten back out. Would you still take it? Still Free Money. What if the $100 was used as toilet paper and used for number 2? Would you still take it? Sounds gross, doesn't it. You would still want it because it never lost its value regardless of the condition $100. It doesn't matter its shape. You would want the money.

Think About You

It doesn't matter if life has dragged you through the dirt, mud, or whether people have crapped on you. You still have the same value as if you were fresh off the printing press. You never lose your value in God's eye. When you change the way, you think you can change your life. You can learn from your mistakes if you don't waste your time denying and defending them.

Laying on my bunk, pressing my visitation clothes at night, I realized that we never lose our values in God's eye regardless of what you or I have been through. If God is for you, who or what can be against you. You can do it whatever it is, even when others say you can't.

You Got G.A.M.E.