John Apple

2008: Holiday Greetings from John Apple

    The beginning of this holiday season again finds me working in the kitchen at the geriatric/hospice unit (Camp 31) at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. My mission in life these days is to give men who are terminally ill an extra biscuit, or another corn-dog, or a second cup of coffee.

    November is the month in-which the Church remembers the dead. I am on the mailing-list of one of the religious communities, and I received a prayer card on-which to list the names of the recently departed. A group of patients and I got together, and we came-up with the names of over 30 people who had died in prison during the last 18 months.

    The Bible says that the day of our death is better-than the day of our birth. (Ecc. 7:1). This is especially true for those serving life sentences. 

    "Dyin' is easy; livin' is hard!"

    I was housed at this same building (at the time, it was the prison hospital) for three months back in 1978. It was then that I first started in earnest to do my time. I told my new psychiatrist that, for all of those years when my spirit was broken, the staff members of the MDOC were kind to me; but, ever since I became strong and healthy again, I have been harshly treated and severely punished. 

    The prison psych-doctor looked at me over his eyeglasses and said, "Well, ya know, that is kinda the way it's supposed to work!"

    The Kingdom has a way of breaking-in on us in unexpected ways and in unexpected places; and, even though we often don't deserve it, life sometimes gives us a second (or even a third) chance.

    It is enough to make a person continue to believe, and to confess, that "All is well!"

Copyright © 2008 John P. Alexander, II and John Apple.  All rights reserved worldwide.