Breathing easier because of me

I’m inspired by Dewey Bozella, 52, who spent 26 years in jail for a murder he didn’t commit.

He was offered a plea deal by prosecutors who believed he killed an old woman back in 1977 but he refused to say he did something he didn’t do so New York’s Sing Sing prison became his home in 1983. His conviction wasn’t overturned until October of 2009, when witnesses recanted.

Dewey Bozella courtesy Sportsbully.com

I can’t imagine the inner strength, the self-esteem, the unwavering awareness of right and wrong that Mr. Bozella must have. I’d probably admit to being on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas, Texas, on the morning of November 22, 1963, if it meant I wouldn’t have to be locked up like a rabid animal.

Of course I’m inspired by Dr. King and Nelson Mandela and Robert F. Kennedy and Rosa Parks and Michael Jordan and the other icons about whom we learn in grade school. But I’m also inspired by Troy Davis and the West Memphis Three and the people I’ve seen and written about recently who stand on busy corners holding cardboard signs and asking for help because although they surely don’t want to, they believe they must.

I’m inspired by Jack Diehl, who taught me that love isn’t always about genetics, that it’s possible to care for another man’s children as our own, to invest in their happiness regardless of whether we were present at their birth. It’s what we do and don’t do once we’ve met that matters.

I don’t always like the people who inspire me. I didn’t know him but from what I’ve read, Charles Bukowski wasn’t a very likable fellow. Yet he turned ugliness into poetry and laid everything on the table, raw and real, for his readers to chew and consider and take or leave.

I didn’t particularly like a former boss, at least not at the end, but I always respected this person and was inspired by the wisdom that was shared and the example that was set.

There’s a cocky young punk I know who’s active in politics and has more talent, energy and connections than most people twice his age. I don’t like him – his decision to unfriend me in Facebook might have something to do with it – but I’m inspired by his “in your face” style and go-getter attitude.

I want to be strong and patient and empathetic and tolerant, not only for my family and friends but for my community, country, planet. I want to see beyond my lawn, my neighborhood, my needs. I want to care about other people even if I don’t know their names or whether they vote like I do. I want to make the most of every day, even if it’s by blogging about something I’d rather ignore or not becoming irritated when someone unfriends me in Facebook or cuts in front of me in line.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said it well:

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends. To appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”

This inspires me, too: knowing that I have the power to make another human being breathe easier.

Not failure, but low aim, is the crime, right?