Preface:
I would like to start sharing correspondence from Soledad to Soledad from the very beginning to the very end when this story is told. It had been years since I had heard from Erik, but he was always on my mind. You see I don't have alot of friends and for good reason. I don't want too. I choose this. But through my lifetime up to this point I have come across many influential people. One of them is dead. More than a few of them are alive. Some of them don't even know what they mean to me or did mean to me or even will mean to me one day. Again my choice. For what I am and for what I have done, I choose to save a mans life. I choose to open up and share my life. For maybe on this journey it is I who needs to be saved. Knowing this I move forward as there is no other direction to go. As I read and reread these letters and think about the conversations and the interviews thus far, I am reminded of a quote:
When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold on to them. They are the life boats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely illusive.
Marc,
Great to hear or read from you. Our friendship means alot to me, I hope some of what my mom explained to you gives reason to my irrationality over the past decade. I get sick to my stomach reflecting upon my erratic conversations and attempts to see/talk to you. The pangs of regret reverberate from my past into my present. Saying this on paper does not alleviate the pain, but the hope of your friendship does. I lost something our senior year of high school. I didn't lose it, I gave it away. Our friendship. You are the best friend of my life, neither before I met you or after had there been anyone I've let in and I cant wait for it to continue.
Tell me how you are doing? What you are doing? Your letter eluded to concern, but of what, I'm in the dark. I hope you are OK, but this place gives me plenty of time to worry. I want to know what you are going through and why it is happening. As soon as I or you learn of the approval to visit you can set up an appointment and we can sit and talk. Also you could get a weekday visit, but this is through glass. Your schedule sounds hectic. Whatever works best would be best for me.
It is not that I want my story told, although that would be a pretty awesome story, its that I want a comparison told. CJ Wilson (texas rangers) and I went to Santa Ana College and he pitched in the World Series last year and I watched from prison. I want a comparative as to why I went my way and he went his. It would be a great tool for kids/college aged ballplayers to not go my way but to choose his. I would love for you and only you to put this together. That is if you think it will work, if not then you make some recommendations and we will go that route as I trust you. I need your phone number. write me and I will call.
Love You, Erik.
As I continue to gain knowledge and work to help this mans appeal process as well as tell his story, I find I am constantly growing. I am appreciating more and more how important and meaningful life can be.
How I was never taught how to make correct decisions and just how imperative integrity is. How beautiful friendship can be. How a mans path can be misleading. But how a mans path is so important for the essence of that man. This journey continues and its with a calm heart, a patient mind, and a honest soul that freemen will exist.
