BROTHER HARRY
By Dan Milllstein

Harry was an old smuggler, one of those "around the world, one too many times, kind of guys". Harry seemed to have one of those of clouds hovering over his head like the character 'Pigpen' in the Snoopy cartoons.
He was diagnosed with lung cancer a while back, he had no insurance, he never went for treatment and he never stopped smoking. I'd bet he had a few children around the world but he really wasn't a family man. He wasn't the happiest kind of guy either, a faultfinder extraordinaire. And now he was doing time for a "few packages" he had brought into the country from the Far East.
Harry says he never did anything like that before but the judge didn't care too much and sentenced to him ten years in prison. Harry also said that he only tried smuggling because he needed money for cancer treatment. I guess he decided he wanted to live after all.
Harry showed up one morning to a meditation class in prison and even as I described him, he seemed articulate and interested, if skeptical, by his questions about the value of meditation. Harry was now fifty years old and with all of his vast worldly experience he had never had much interest in spiritual matters, psychology, art or religion.
His cancer diagnosis was not good, another year to live at best. He would never see the outside world again. Harry would die in prison.
Harry caught on to meditation quickly. In fact he became one of those "born again meditators", an evangelist, dragging any other prisoner who would listen to him to our Saturday meditation groups. "You gotta do this stuff" was Harry's new mantra. Some of the guys wanted to smack him (playfully) because of his manic raves about how he was thinking and feeling due to his new practice of 'sitting'. Harry suddenly became somewhat of a celebrity. 'Brother Harry' was his new nickname on the yard. He brought new people to every class and kept on them about continuing their meditation practice. He was becoming quite a Guru. Close to death, in prison, and free for the first time in his life, so he said and so it seemed. Harry was one happy camper.
Now it's not too smart to enjoy yourself in prison. Some of your punishment types even resent you. After all they can go home after their shift and many of them are not happy, why should you, the prisoner, be happy? One of those guards took that very position when it came to Harry.
This guard took exception to Harry's newfound happiness and decided to prove to Harry that prison was far from Disneyland, the happiest place on earth. At every opportunity he shook Harry down, against the wall two or three times per shift. Dumping Harry's locker contents on to his bunk when Harry was at breakfast, leaving his meager goods out on display for other inmates to pilfer, pens gone, stamps, socks, soaps, all the hard to replace stuff laying out unsecured. Brother Harry's happiness was the cause of him being harassed constantly.
Brother Harry could take a lot, after all he had nothing more to loose except his new found inner peace, and as Harry was fond of saying, "no knuckle dragging guard" was going to take that away. One day the guard was waiting outside the bathroom. As Harry emerged the guard said, "Hands behind your back, we're going for a U.A.." (urine analysis drug test). Brother Harry knew he was clean, no worries. But this did present another problem, and Harry protested that he had just urinated and would probably not be able to fill a jar for a while. Too bad, "You fill the jar in the allotted time or you get written up for non-cooperation and get sent to the hole for sixty days. Another complication, Harry protested, " I have an enlarged prostate gland and I sometimes have trouble peeing even when I have to go". Too bad, Harry could not produce and was sent to the hole.
Almost two months later Harry enters the classroom again. This time he is no longer fifty years old, no longer weathered or beat down, Brother Harry has been reborn. He shines like a light, he has a twinkle in his eyes I can see from across the room. Everyone in the room turns and looks at Brother Harry. Harry has a few sheets of poetry he wants to read us. Mostly he says he needs to tell us, "Fifty eight days and fifty eight nights meditating in the hole gave me a great gift, I have my life back. I know I am healed of my cancer and I am ready to die at the same time. I have been forgiven and have felt the power of God's love for me.
And, he added, " If I can do this, you guys can too". Brother Harry was back. One of the guys laughed and said, "Harry, you clean-up real good." We all agreed.
PS.- The guard who was harassing Harry was transferred while Harry was in the hole. Too bad, Brother Harry wanted to thank him. After all, Harry has served his time and is still alive and cancer free more than ten years later! One of the ironies is that Harry turned to smuggling in an attempt to pay for his cancer treatment. All prayer is answered.

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