Our own Green Mile

It was my first time to walk alone in the long silent and dark corridors of the Palace of Justice. I didn't have anyone by my side to talk to when I want to. Sometimes, I would meet people walking the other way but most of the time, I was alone in discovering the place. It wasn't my first time to notice that the color of the floor tiles of the corridors were lime green. It reminded me of the movie The Green Mile. I haven't really thought about the movie before but walking alone and hearing my footsteps as they echo on the empty corridors made me realize how we all have our own green mile to walk. 

For those who hasn't seen the Green Mile, it's a tale about correction officers who were assigned to the death row and how they met a "true miracle of God", a convicted felon named John Coffey. The film's main actor was Tom Hank, he was the character named Paul Edgecomb, the warden of the correction officer. This is probably one of my favorite movies, it made me laugh and cry at the same. It was purely touching and believe it or not, it's a Stephen King work. 

According to the film, death row corridors are called the last mile, because it's going to be the last walk of a person on his way to execution. But they call their's as the Green Mile because their floor tile was the color of lime green.

 

Today, I walked a Green Mile. No, I wasn't walking the same green mile like that of the movie, but I was walking in a similar mile. I walked a corridor where men who waits for the decision of the court walks. I walked a corridor where the families of victims or accused walks miserably, thinking of what might happen next. I walked a corridor where lawyers, with all their documents, walks as they think of the life they have to defend. I walked a corridor where a judge thinks about his/her decision, knowing that the one word coming out of her.his mouth will change a life forever.

It was their own Green Mile. That time, it was mine too.

All of us will come to a point in our lives where we make decisions that would change our lives forever. That maybe our Green Mile, our last walk before changing the paths of our lives. We walk the long corridor thinking with the weight of the pros and cons of our going to be decisions. Sometimes, like what the last quote of the movie said, it would take so long to walk the green mile but sooner or later we will have to decide. 

As I walked away from the corridors and my footstep started to fade away, I realized that at that time I was also walking my own Green Mile, literally and figuratively. 

That moment, I decided that for once, to be dependent in myself and no one else because sooner or later we all have to walk a path where only the sounds of our footsteps are our company. When that time come, I will be ready because I have once walked the same path. 

We all have our own dark corridors to walk where we only wish to see the light. But with the right things in mind, we will find our way back to the light.

-Mayang-