A Moment to Smile

I watched ‘the grinch’ today, and a particular scene inspired my answer to this prompt. In that animation, there was a scene where even after attempting to steal Christmas from the town, Cindy Lou, the little girl, went ahead to invite him for Christmas dinner. He asked her why she still chose to invite him, despite all he did, and she responded saying that she simply wanted to share Christmas with him. At that moment, his heart grew bigger, and I’m sure everyone deserves to experience that type of love once in their lifetime.

I’ve never been to a prison before but when I was younger, my sister and parents went. I asked my sister what it was like, to be at the prison, and she smiled, telling me how excited the prisoners were, at seeing new faces, and new food. She told me how she enjoyed having conversations with some inmates. It’s been a long time but I can’t seem to forget how happy my sister was throughout that day. Joy radiated through her and that was one of the moments I hated being a child because judging from how my sister came back smiling, no amount of storytelling would have outdone getting the actual experience.

I get it that to be in a prison, one has to have committed a crime, whether big or small. I also get it that most of these crimes have affected others wrongly. However, there’s no law that says celebrating with them for a few hours, or sharing a nice experience with them will in anyway, erase every punishment they have and are currently going through.

There are victims whose lives have changed because of the actions of some of these people, and I can imagine the pain they must feel, seeing the perpetrators smiling and celebrating, while they go about with pain in their hearts. But one thing is for sure in this case. Taking away those few hours they spent celebrating, wouldn’t change what happened in the past. It wouldn’t take away the pain so why not just let them be?

There are people that committed heinous crimes, but there are also people whose only crimes were being present at the right place at the wrong time. There are also people who were framed, misjudged, or put in there by people in powerful positions, in that same prison. While they wallow in the misery their lives are now characterized by, they also deserve a break from their reality, and a chance to live. In fact, everyone deserves an opportunity to experience living.

The grinch, even after thwarting Cindy’s plans, still got invited to the Christmas dinner at their home. This little gesture made both of them so happy, and that’s exactly what everyone deserves to get a taste of on Christmas - happiness. I’m very sure that seeing the four walls of prison everyday, is already a form of punishment to these people. It wouldn’t do any harm to put a smile on their faces for just a day, while they’re still in that prison.

I’ve never been to the prison before, but I feel it would be such a grim place to be in. Everyone there is either suffering the consequences of their actions, or there for no reason. And it’s a known fact that no one smiles genuinely through suffering, so this breath of fresh air, is just a stretch of humanity towards them. Let them have it!

Thanks for reading.

Images above were taken by me.

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