Summer of 2006

Goiter

Two Tonys - A whacker of men and Mafia associate serving over one-hundred years for various murders and violent crimes. A Tarantino character whose philosophy and social criticism may upset the politically correct.

“I’m excited about this book,” Two Tonys said, waving a book I’d asked him to look at, The Great Thoughts by George Seldes.
“What are you learning from it?” I asked.
Two Tonys flipped to the introduction, and said, “It’s right here, Blaise Pascal: ‘Man’s greatness lies in the power of thought.’ And Marcus Aurelius Antonius: ‘Our life is what our thoughts make it.’”
“Marcus Aurelius was the philosopher emperor who wrote Meditations – a good book for prisoners to read to help them strengthen their minds and deal with any situation.”
“And here’s Emerson: ‘Great men are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material force, that thoughts rule the world.’”
“Are these quotes helping you here in prison?”
“They’re makin’ me realize, I’m wastin’ my thoughts hatin’ on people. For me to lay up and hate is like havin’ a goiter on my neck. Sometimes I just lay on my bunk, lookin’ at the wall and ceilin’, thinkin’ about motherfuckers I hate. It’s a goiter on my fuckin’ neck that keeps growin’ and growin’, and I’ve gotta cut it off. I’d like to get it surgically removed, but there ain’t no surgeon in the world with a scalpel sharp enough to cut this fucker off.”
“So how are you going to fix it?”
“Aurelius is gonna be my surgeon! Pascal is gonna be my surgeon! Emerson is gonna be my surgeon! Life is nothin’ but thought, is it? I could go to a restaurant and order a rack of lamb with mint jelly, rice pilaf, French bread, a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon, and for desert, kahlua parfait, and yeah, I’d enjoy it at the time, but I’d also enjoy thinkin’ about it afterwards as well. Just like I can lay on my bunk and instead of hatin’ on motherfuckers and thinkin’ of ways to whack them, I can enjoy picturin’ when I was on the lam in Waikiki and Maui, livin’ in a house on the slopes of Mount Halakala, and how beautiful it was. It’s all about the thoughts. This is an epiphany for me. Look, my goiters shrinkin’. When I feel hate invadin my space, I’m gonna combat it by readin’ this book or whatever else I can get my hands on.”

What else should Two Tonys read that might shrink his goiter? If you want to help Two Tonys with his goiter by sending him a book at Buckeye prison then contact me at the email address below.

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Copyright © 2007-2008 Shaun P. Attwood