Prison From Proximity
She used to live in Sacramento, but recently Laura Ling traveled to South Korea. Apparently, while there, her proximity to the border of North Korea earned her a 12 year sentence to hard labor in prison.
CNN reported, “Two U.S. journalists who were detained in North Korea while covering the plight of defectors living along the China-North Korea border have been sentenced to 12 years in labor prisons, the country's state-run media said Monday.
The Central Court of North Korea sentenced Laura Ling and Euna Lee for the "grave crime they committed against the Korean nation and their illegal border crossing," the Korean Central News Agency said.”
Imagine the morning Laura woke up. While wanting to report on Human Trafficking, her life was derailed by a dictators demand’s and ill will to get a pawn of a global game of political chess.
But that is not what I am writing. She went to prison for proximity.
What if this was your life? Think of the numbers of people who are imprisoned for proximity to that which steals life by forcing them to labor towards freedom.
I have been there. I’ve called the prison of my mind home. I’ve hung trapped by all that I can’t leave behind. U2 called it Stuck in a Moment. Others are imprisoned by the proximity to that which is less than best. An enemy called average is their master.
Some it's an online connection to the seductive. They have been imprisoned by the proximity to their mouse. Each web click, they navigate closer to that which keeps them longer than they were willing to stay. Ironically, they are entangled in the world wide web of destruction.
Others are locked away in solitary confinement of isolation. Each day, though thousands surround them, they are alone.
What imprisons you? What is it that you are to close to that will, over time, infect you with a inevitable derailment into having to work harder than needed?
Proximity can imprison.
Live free.
