My Most Precious Gift

TIME: MY MOST PRECIOUS GIFT, by MANSA LUTALO IYAPO -aka- Mr. Rufus West
What immediately comes to mind if I asked you to name the most precious gift that you have ever had or have? Some people may name materialistic items (e.g. cars, jewelry, money, clothes, etc.), while others may name things like family, the gift of gab, or some type of intellectual skill. If you would have asked me that question more than 3 months ago I likely would have said my children. I am now convinced, however, that my children are not my most precious gifts. Time is.

The reason why I say that Time is my most precious gift is because no matter what I may possess, if I don't have Time to enjoy that which I have, it means nothing. I learned this via an epiphany that I had after a Brother had mentioned the importance of Time. I was admiring my photos of my children when it dawned on me that while they are indeed my children, I am unable to spend any Time with them because of my imprisonment. It makes no difference how many children a parent has, if they don't have the Time to spend with them it becomes a detached sort of arrangement

Similarly, if you own a favorite car, or 10 cars, but you don't have Time to drive them, how would you feel? Everything that we like or love is meaningless if we don't have Time to enjoy them.

Every fleeting moment of Time that passes is gone forever. In the context of children/parent relationships, Time spent together is the most precious gift that we've been given. Otherwise you all get older without each other and before you know it your children are walking, talking, and as tall as, or even taller than, you are.

That's one type of Time lost. The other type is if a person dies. If you are dead you will not have Time to enjoy the things that you deem precious.

In both examples mentioned above it is clear to me that Time is more precious than anything. If the present did not exist there would be no past or future. The very word "present," while can be defined as Time, it also can be defined as a gift, e.g. a birthday "present," as well as to give, e.g., I "present" you with this present. Ultimately what you have is a never-ending gift that is always being given to you every second that you are alive.

All of this begs the question, if Time is such a gift, why do we abuse this gift by putting ourselves in prison or in situations where we will likely end up dead? I can only speak for myself when I say that in my state of ignorance and mental instability I did not realize that Time was my most precious gift. I was putting other things before Time, not knowing that I was putting the cart before the horse and going nowhere - fast. In other words, instead of thinking that my sixteen " years in prison means sixteen years without my children, I now think in terms of sixteen years and my children have been without their father. Time: my most precious gift.

Dated this 25th day of June, 2010.
MANSA LUTALO IYAPO --aka- Mr. Rufus West, #225213
P.O. Box 900;(CCI)
Portage, WI 53901