Drawing from the Source
Some thoughts require space to breathe. Some questions demand more than surface-level answers. Some explorations of meaning can only emerge from the deepest parts of human experience — places where suffering has carved out caverns large enough to hold profound truths.
The Deep Well represents my attempt to draw wisdom from the depths of lived experience, examining the fundamental questions that shaped my journey from violence to understanding, from confinement to transcendence. These are the philosophical excavations that emerged during 24 years of forced contemplation and continue to evolve in freedom.
Beyond the Surface
While my travel writing captures the external landscapes of freedom and my reentry advocacy addresses practical challenges, The Deep Well plunges beneath these surfaces to explore the bedrock questions of human existence: What is violence, really, and how does it shape us? What does it mean to transcend our physical limitations? How do we reckon with the parts of ourselves we wish we could forget?
These pieces don’t offer easy answers or comfortable reassurances. They represent honest wrestling with concepts that most people prefer to leave unexamined. They emerge from the understanding that sometimes the most important truths can only be accessed by descending into the difficult depths rather than skimming along the surface.
Forged in Confinement, Refined in Freedom
The foundations for these philosophical explorations were laid during decades of institutional confinement, where time moved differently and introspection became a survival necessity. When external stimulation is stripped away, when choices are removed, when life is reduced to its most basic elements, certain fundamental questions become unavoidable.
But these aren’t merely prison musings preserved in amber. They represent living philosophies that continue to evolve, ideas that have been tested against the realities of reentry and refined through the lens of renewed freedom. They bridge the worlds of confinement and liberty, offering perspectives that could only emerge from having experienced both extremes.
The Courage to Descend
The Deep Well requires courage — both to write and to read. It demands willingness to examine uncomfortable truths about human nature, to confront the shadows we all carry, and to consider possibilities that challenge conventional thinking about transformation, justice, and the potential for human transcendence.
These explorations aren’t meant to impress or shock, but to illuminate. They represent one person’s attempt to extract meaning from suffering, wisdom from trauma, and hope from the seemingly hopeless. They ask not just “what happened?” but “what does it mean?” and “what becomes possible when we refuse to let our worst moments define our ultimate potential?”
Drawing Water for the Journey
The well serves the traveler. These philosophical pieces aren’t academic exercises or abstract theorizing — they’re attempts to draw practical wisdom from impractical circumstances, to offer sustenance for others navigating their own difficult journeys toward understanding and transformation.
Whether you’re currently incarcerated, recently released, supporting someone through reentry, or simply wrestling with your own questions about violence, justice, forgiveness, and human potential, these explorations invite you to descend with me into the deeper currents that shape all our lives.
The water at the bottom of the well often tastes different than what flows from surface streams. It may be harder to reach, but it’s drawn from sources that run deeper and truer than the passing storms above.
Come to the edge of the well. Look down into the depths. What you see there might surprise you.
