By Edward Ball
From the outside looking in Smurf, one of my roommates in a maximum security prison, was crazy as hell. However, after watching and listening to Smurf I came to realize he was the sanest person I had ever met.
In order to realize that Smurf was extremely sane I had to look past several things. First, I had to look past the fact that he spent many years in solitary confinement. Second, I had to look past him breaking beds welded and bolted to walls and using the bed as a battle ram to knock down cell doors. Third, I had to look past the fact the he would frequently call correctional officers “di#% suckers” to their faces. I also had to look past the fact that he kept our cell so clean and neat I believed he had OCD and a serial killer living inside him. Finally, I had to look past the fact that he used the lid of a peanut butter jar to keep from shaving a circular patch of hair on the back of his head that he braided. He almost looked like a character from a Jean Claude Van Damme kick boxing movie. After looking past all of that I realized he was so sane he seemed crazy.
Smurf did what he wanted, said what he wanted, and do go for the non-sense. While many of us so called convicts, killers, and ballers locked away in a maximum security were in compliance with prison rules and orders being barked disrespectfully Smurf refused. While we accepted being treated less than he would give them hell until they treated him more than. Yeah, he might be taken to the hole and roughed up and starved by they would think twice about talking to and treating him any kind of way.
I realized that Smurf knew himself, he knew his value. As a result he demanded, risking his life and safety, to be treated at par with who he was and his value.
If you don’t know who you are you won’t know your value.