i spent some time in a maximum security prison - would you call that hard times? it restored my faith in the basic goodness of humankind. one of my bunkmates ran store, meaning he bought extra from the commissary then resold it through the week. he took the profits and gave it to people who had no one on the outside. my first day in the work dorm, which was bitch ass cold, a guy i never met gay me a thermal top. i'm diabetic, so i went to the nurse's station every afternoon for insulin, then straight to the cafe for dinner. when my dorm went later in the evening, a gave my meal to a guy who had nothing. i could have sold it. those acts of kindness created our group - that's how you know you're dealing with solid guys. those men would have fought for me, lied for me, covered for me, gone to solitary for me, and me for them. in county one of my friends got cut off from his money for a month, so i bought him a few soups every week. when they moved me to the sorting prison, the second day i saw him there on a construction crew. i was new, so my money hadn't been transfered and i couldn't get anything from the store - but that night i got a bag full of goodies delivered, right past the guards. i'm a skinny intellectual homosexual buddhist, but no one ever stole from me, harassed me, fucked with me, nothing - other than the guards, shining flashlights up my ass, but i survived that shit, and i'm mean the mf terrordorm, niggas walkin around with bloodstained machetes like its fuckin RWANDA up in that bitch, cause i'm a GOOD PERSON and rock solid trustworthy. i studied arabic with the nation of islam, and once compared tatts with an MS-13 assassino. all by following the path of the buddha.