Sunday, February 22, 2009:
Oscar Night is a big deal in our family. Each year we have a small party, the girls and I dress up in our gowns and gloves and the “paparazzi” takes tons of pictures of us on the “red carpet” as we gather to celebrate the past year in film and pre-celebrate the day I hope to stand on that stage accepting my own Oscar.
Tonight I cannot help but be distracted, thinking of a young man in a county cell in Douglas County, Colorado awaiting the dawn and a new day. The movies we watch that most inspire our souls I find quite often come from real life stories. The story of Nathan Ybanez is no different, only this is no movie; this is his life. How this coming week unfolds will determine the outcome of the rest of his days, whether possibly spent someday free or imprisoned for the rest of his natural born days.
It is hard for us to imagine, as we go about our day to day activities and occupations, what it is like to spend 20 hrs a day in a prison cell. That kind of confinement, restriction, lack of freedom, whatever you choose to call it, is unfathomable to us. Most of us wouldn’t last but a few days under such circumstances. What, therefore, can keep a soul alive after ten years in such a place? A place you’ve been since you were a minor, grew up in, and basically know nothing else? I do not know. What I do know, however, is that Nathan has done it somehow, and with incredible grace, patience, and hope. What we’re all hoping now is that all of that is about to pay off for him.
Godspeed Nathan. We will all be with you tomorrow, whether physically or in spirit.
