That's it, Warden.
A few days ago I happened upon this link to the final statements of executed prisoners in Texas. Outside the context of politicking about whether or not the death penalty is right is this sense that the moment when these statements are taken is a real moment of confrontation of the acts that put the person where they are and their final stand before the end of their life. Because life seems, by its nature, to just keep going whether we deal with ourselves or not, it's easy to avoid the type of confrontation that makes us come to terms with ourselves - a confrontation that is totally Boolean: YES, I did it. NO, I am innocent. HERE are the ones I loved. THIS is my peace with God. I wonder if the inmates would reach this point of confrontation without the finality of death. I wonder if, as time passed, and details got murky, things would just not seem so Boolean.
It makes me think about how we all have to die at some point and how many of us, verbally or otherwise, will be forced in final moments to come to terms with the people we became, what we did while we were here, and who we loved. And all that time we spent drifting around, or trying not to think about things too critically will collapse into that final few minutes, or seconds, when we confront ourselves dying.
The statements are haunting, as they should be, when I think about them this way.
10:54:02 PM
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