PRISON FELLOWSHIP: Ron Nikkel

There is a clear relationship between brain function and certain kinds of behavior.  For several years I conducted brain mapping research on rats as a researcher in the Psychology Department of a Canadian university.  It was extremely interesting work that eventually resulted in discovering unique linkages between specific areas of the brain and behaviors.  

Words strain, Crack and sometimes break, under the burden, Under the tension, slip, slide, perish, Decay with imprecision, will not stay in place, Will not stay still. Shrieking voices Scolding, mocking, or merely chattering, Always assail them

 T. S. Eliot, “Four Quartets, Burnt Norton”

Have you ever listened to someone talk on and on until they think of something to say? 

The congregation knelt in silence for the prayer of confession . . .

“Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep, we have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts, we have offended against thy holy laws, we have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done; and there is no health in us.

It sounds strange, somewhat on the line between irony and absurdity, to think that people would rather label and judge something as significant as each other but completely bypass a peanut. … World peace is only a dream because people won’t allow themselves and others around them to simply be peanuts.

Hunger…it may not and cannot be experienced vicariously. He who never felt hunger can never know its real effects, both tangible and intangible. Hunger defies imagination; it even defies memory. Hunger is felt only in the present.

– Elie Wiesel

“HUNGRY – Will work for food!”

So the people of the valley sent a message up the hill, asking for the buried treasure, tons of gold for which they’d kill. Came an answer from the kingdom “with our brothers we will share all the secrets of our mountain, all the riches buried there.”

When we don’t forgive, we drink the poison ourselves and then wait for the other person to die. And we take the knife that has hurt us and we stab ourselves with it again. …

But when we forgive, we pour out the poison of the enemy and of the devil and we don’t let the poison stay in us and we don’t let the poison make us into poisonous snakes!

“What on earth would make her do that?” I wondered when my friend’s daughter recently walked out on her husband. “They seemed so together, successful, a good looking family, decent friends, a nice big home, members of the church – What will become of her and the kids, the husband, and their families — What could possibly lead to such a drastic decision?” 

For better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, I promise – I do In sickness and in health, from now until forever, I’ll always love you, and so with, all of my heart, till death do us part I do, I promise I’ll always love you

– Jessica Foker, “I Do”

You could hardly blame the anguished Nepalese mother for abandoning her family. 

Who are you to judge the life I live I know I’m not perfect, and I don’t live to be, but before you start pointing fingers make sure your hands are clean.

-Bob Marley, “Judge Not”

“Your son should be ashamed of himself, he is a disgrace,” a woman told my father, pointing at me accusingly.