Scenes of Prison
41. A Parent's Curse
I met Jesse one day when a fistfight brought him to our Disciplinary Segregation Unit. Young, red hair, slender, youthful frame. Jesse was full of energy and full of life. Curious. Social. He would stand at his door inside his room and chat through the door with anyone who would stop and take the time to listen to him. Occasionally, I would take the time myself, and we would chat.
Jesse was young enough and small enough to know that he would have to fight often to keep from being bullied and victimized by older, bigger, stronger inmates, but Jesse held no grudges. He’d always been this way, he said. It was his life. It was just how he had to handle himself.
One day, we got to talking about his name. His middle name was James, so he was Jesse James Olson. He reminded me that Jesse James was a famous outlaw, and that his parents had named him fully expecting that he would live up to his name. It was expected of him. “I was born to be an outlaw,” he said.
I didn’t like that. It seemed like a curse had been put on him at his birth by his parents. It also occurred to me that his name had steered him into bad choices throughout his young life, like a slow-acting poison. I decided to try to stop its poisonous influence.
“Yes,” I replied, “you’re named after a famous outlaw, but do you know who Jesse James was named after?”
He had no clue. A blank stare was his only answer.
“Jesse James was named after the Biblical character Jesse, the father of King David, the greatest king of the Hebrew people,” I said. “King David is an ancestor of Jesus, and James was Jesus’ brother. You’re named after famous Biblical characters, who were related to Jesus himself!”
Jesse was startled. A big grin appeared on his face. He jumped onto the toilet in his room and stepped to the vent on the wall hehind it which allowed him to speak directly into the air vent above his commode. The air duct served to move air, and it also allowed inmates to communicate with each other between their rooms.
“You hear that,” he shouted to no one in particular.
“I’m named after a king and Jesus’ brother!” he shouted.
He jumped down from the toilet, returned to his door.
“What do you think of that?” he said, genuinely surprised. “Well, that changes everything.”
I smiled, and I wondered if it really would. He had many years of life left to live, and he would be leaving prison one day. I hoped it would change his future.
Discussion
- Has your name influenced you in any way?
- Did your parents intend to influence you by the name they chose?
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