A Day When Perspective Shifts

I spent a day alone in Mexico City a decade ago.

It was one of those days that changes your perspective on life. Something shifts. I was walking down the street, with so much humanity, breathing in a new culture. I remember the song playing on the radio  was "Californication." I can see the vibrant colors, dirty streets, and smell the food. An attractive guy - with long dark hair and a copy of "Love in the Time of Cholera" in his hands - asked me to lunch, though I declined, I still remember smiling.

Feeling free and breathing deeply, I decided on a whim to visit a a museum exhibit showcasing torture devices (not sure why?). I don't remember too much about the beginning of the exhibit - though there was some disturbing apparati. What I remember was the very last room.

Sitting in the middle of a room all to itself was an electric chair.

I had never thought about the death penalty as torture before. I had thought about the death penalty, and I had thought about what it means to kill someone, both the criminal and the state. I had never thought of the actual act of strapping someone to an electric chair as being viewed as a form of torturing another human being. I had never thought other countries thinking of something legal in the US as torture.

It was a mind shifting perspective for a young idealistic Peace Corps Volunteer. It stuck with me, informs my views to this day. It opened my eyes to other views, expanded circles of influence. I still remember that day. Once day can shift your whole perspective.

This post was inspired by the novel The Execution of Noa P. Singleton by Elizabeth L. Silver. Mere months before Noa’s execution, her victim’s mother changed her mind Noa’s sentence and vows to help stay the execution. Join From Left to Write on July 30 as we discuss The Execution of Noa P. Singleton.. As a member, I received a copy of the book for review purposes.