Shaka Senghor

But then if you actually walk out your door and just take a stroll to your backyard, a stroll to your neighborhood and observe the beauty that is in abundance, you'll realize that life is magical.

And obviously, you know, I had an experience that took me away from that, right?

Like I went in 19 years without petting a dog or touching a flower.

or being able to stand by water.

I think I didn't see the ocean until I was 40 years old.

It's really about being mindful and being present and not taking things for granted.

And so that's just how I try to show up in life.

So one, there's the kind of social responsibility I have to really speak the truth to the experience of incarceration in America and beyond.

And, you know, one of the things that I just remind people of is that 96% of people will get out of prison.

And as a society, we have a choice in how those people come home.

Do we want them to come home healthy, whole, able to contribute to society in a meaningful way?

Or do we want them to just come home broken beyond repair, which means that they'll, without a doubt and without a question, cause significant harm to the rest of the society?

And so that's more of like my social responsibility.

And on the personal level, I used to...

I used to have the reaction that I think most humans would have when someone's attacking them.

I used to get defensive and used to feel like I had to defend my character and my personality.

And then I just got to a point in life where what I realized is that people who attack someone who they think of as being vulnerable or unworthy are usually just attacking themselves internally.

And they're not happy with themselves.

So they can't be happy for somebody else.

They haven't