Wednesday 23 July 2008

Transforming a life

"I used to be a hardcore, hardhearted guy. Once you make the decision to change, all kinds of things happen...When I was out there on stage and the guys were laughing, I could see I had them in the palm of my hand. I thought, 'I just discovered what I was born to do.' It was an enormous kind of power."

These are the words of award-winning actor Charles Dutton. He spent seven and 1/2 years in prison for fatally stabbing a man in a street fight. In prison, he found his passion in theater and went on to study at Yale. He just sold his memoir to Crown. In it, he writes about growing up in the East Baltimore projects, where he spent much of his young life incarcerated. Theater did for him what my bike did for me; it transformed his life. Itseems to have had a lot to do with awareness.

His has to be a powerful story. I'll be interested in reading this book when it is published. Would you?

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