The essay, What Thanksgiving in Prison Really Looks Like is written by Tracy Lee Kendall and is featured at the Prison Writers website.

Excerpts from the essay appear below.

While special, public relations-oriented prison programs and units with nice celebrations for inmates exist, they are the exceptions, not the rule, about Thanksgiving in Texas prisons. Thanksgiving in most Texas prisons is defined by the direction of prisoners’ hearts, which varies. The meal, however, varies little from year to year. The main course is usually ham or a pork chop, processed turkey, and maybe a slice of brisket. Sides may include green beans, black-eyed peas, macaroni and cheese, sweet potatoes, coleslaw, greens, pickles, black olives, jalapeños, celery, etc. Desserts are often various cakes, cookies, cranberry sauce, pear crisp, or whatever the kitchen can make available.

Like any type of joy in here, I have to struggle to find it. Pain and loss, which prison culture often generates, can easily obstruct joy. However, resilience is a potential of the human condition, regardless of circumstances. Some of us grasp at the fragments of light dropping into rare moments. Within these moments can be found joy.

When giving thanks, shared humanity is our connection and potential to enrich each others lives—all the way to our dreams. Combined with the diverse history of the Thanksgiving table—bad and good—we find lessons about facing and deepening humanity. This increases the potential to make each other thankful, which the current world (in and out of here), vitally needs.

You can read the full essay, “What Thanksgiving in Prison Really Looks Like,” at the Prison Writers website.

Tracy Lee Kendall is an incarcerated writer and social activist in Texas.

Prison Writers aims to offer uncensored, personal stories and thoughtful essays from incarcerated citizens across the country about what really goes on inside the secretive world of prison corrections