Sunday, November 14, 2010

"I AM!" I CRIED

By Jack Reeves

GUARD: (Opening cell door) Father, they'll be coming for him in about 20 minutes.

PRIEST: Alright. Thank you.

PRIEST: Jack...Jack, would you like to pray?

JACK: I don't want to pray! How can this be happening? I'm innocent! I did not kill anyone!

PRIEST: The Lord can be with you, Jack.

JACK: I did not kill her! I've said from the beginning that I'm not the one! In minutes I am going to be killed! Dead! They're executing an innocent person! I am going to fight them!

PRIEST: Jack, let's ask God's help. We can pray for his mercy and for strength.

JACK: Goddamn God! Don't you realize I'm innocent! They system fucked me! I don't want to die! This is hell!

PRIEST: Jack, we're beyond all that. He can be with you at this time. Let's....

JACK: I don't want to die! I should not die! No--be killed! They're going to kill me in minutes! They're getting ready to end my life, to destroy me! Don't you understand, damn you?

PRIEST: We all will face death, Jack. It comes down to how. We do not have to be alone.

JACK: But they're getting ready to execute me! Murder me! I'm innocent!

PRIEST: Turn to the Lord, Jack. He cares and can comfort.

JACK: Do you believe I killed her?

PRIEST: All I know is that you were tried, and the jury concluded that you did. So did the appeals court, and the governor.

JACK: But I'm innocent! I'm scared. I don't want to die, to be killed. I have only seconds of life left!

PRIEST: Life, living includes how we face our death, how we die.

JACK: I'm going to fight them!

PRIEST: Jack, the guards will restrain you. You cannot succeeded. Let's seek God's help through this.

JACK: I don't believe in God!

PRIEST: Then look to yourself, Jack. Dying, how you face death, much defines us. You are helpless in this except for what you can dredge from within you.

JACK: I never could have imagined that this would happen to me.

PRIEST: But it is. How you face this lies in you. You can even in these final minutes assert yourself. Likely the greatest assertion of your life in your life, Jack.

JACK: Life is absurd because we live only to die!

PRIEST: It is the way it is. We must live and learn to accept it. We need God.

JACK: A good God would not let this happen!

PRIEST: I cannot....

JACK: Do I go down fighting? Do I rage? Do I lie down, be strapped down and let them kill me?

PRIEST: Your choice will be your last 'I am'. How do you want....?

JACK: (Head in hands, covering eyes)

PRIEST: Choose if you can what leaves you in control of you, Jack. We cannot undo what's done, decided. But you can decide whether your last, your greatest decision and action, is determined by you. Indeed, it is you.

JACK: How does one go gentle into that good night rather than rage against it?

PRIEST: It's yours to decide, dear Jack.

2 comments:

mythopolis said...

Yeh, guess it is Jack's to decide. But, as pointed out in an earlier post, sometimes we don't have that option.

mythopolis said...

Never mind recent mail, but something weird happened and that is why I wrote.