Mind & Heart
Introduction
This narrative is a true story, the major portion written as it unfolded over the years from March 2006 though January 2010. On December 14, 2007, I was wrongly convicted of the crime of "Indecency with a Child by Contact", a horrendous crime that I did not commit. This narrative includes the ongoing attempts to clear my name and restore my life and the subsequent victory I have won, first in the mind and heart and then on the temporal field of battle in the political maze of the judicial system. It is a story of injustice, grief and moral outrage, transcendence and the lessons of love and service through self-forgetting as taught by the Master, Jesus of Nazareth.
The preceding paragraph was written just after the charges had been dismissed in January 2010. I feel now that it is important to give the reader in these additional lines a glimpse into that world that most will never have to witness. It is February 22, 2011 as I now write; I have been a free man since January 14th, 2010. That is the day the prosecution finally decided to drop all charges against me, after a tooth and nail fight for my life through the complex appellate court system in this great state of Texas, a fight I won, a fight most lose.
I am forever changed by the experiences described in the pages of this narrative, never again to return to the comfort of not knowing, the naiveté of believing all that is said in the media. I am free but a part of me remains chained, with those my brothers who are still fighting for a breath of fresh air, a glimpse of sunlight. I will never forget them.
This is not just my story of success, but sadly it is also the story of the left behind, the overlooked, the mentally ill, the ignorant, the dispossessed of our society who find themselves without defense in a cruel system of inhumanities, impossible odds. It is the story of the innocent and the guilty, those with power, those without power. It is a story of the human family, with all the frailties as well as the strengths found in the soul of human beings. It explores the best in the worst and the worst in the best of us.
My hope is that this writing will offer the reader a new way to contemplate the accused. Without doubt, there are many who are rightly accused and rightly should be held accountable. But our great nation was founded on principles of "liberty and justice for all", and "innocent until proven guilty" and it is these principles that I point at that are being trampled upon, lost in what has become a game of high stakes where lives are bargained for reputation, money, power. I only hope that we can begin to utilize common sense, fair play and to gain a higher moral ground where we are guided by justice accompanied by mercy, and where our freedoms are upheld but only when tempered by responsibility.
Finally, I hope that what is most evident is the under riding theme about the possibility of love, even for ones enemies, even in horrible circumstances. This idea, taught and practiced by the Master, Jesus is eloquently stated in these great words by Paul Claudel: "There is no one of my brothers [or sisters]... that I can do without... In the heart of the meanest miser, the most squalid prostitute, the most miserable drunkard, there is an immortal soul with holy aspirations, which deprived of daylight, worships in the night. I hear them speaking when I speak and weeping when I go down on my knees. There is no one of them I can do without. Just as there are many stars in the heavens and their power of calculation is beyond my reckoning so also there are many living beings... I need them all in my praise of God. There are many living souls but there is not one of them that I'm not in communion in the sacred apex where we utter together the Our Father".
Book cover and website header illustrations
by David Williams - 2011
From the Author
Wayland Matthew Fox
Photo by Juan E. Rivas - 04/07/2011
Join our discussion on Facebook