For further context on my friendship with Gerjuan, please read this previous post (recently updated!) from Rogo's Modern Life
They say kindness is contagious. The unlikely friendship I forged with an incarcerated wildland firefighter over the past year is proof positive.
Gerjuan Harmon and I were born a year apart, on opposite coasts of the country, into circumstances that couldn’t possibly have been more different. Those circumstances afforded me a loving and supportive family, a stable home in a safe and secure community, and access to the best healthcare, schools, and opportunities for personal enrichment.
Gerjuan’s circumstances afforded him a broken family (mother shot dead in the streets when he was 3; father leaving him with his grandmother and splitting town), an inconsistent, insecure childhood with frequent movement between foster homes and juvenile halls, and institutionalized and inadequate healthcare and education from uncaring providers who did not make him feel wanted, welcome, or worthy.
I ended up getting to live my dream as a comedian and television personality, traveling the world, and experiencing countless moments of joy and wonder.
He ended up behind bars for nearly half his life.
Yet despite our different circumstances, we are identical in the most important way: we are both children of God, brothers in Spirit, expressions of the same divine energy that is the source of all creation — whatever you wish to call it or gender you insist on assigning it. Every single one of us is made of the same atoms, assembled into a carbon-based life form requiring of the same air and the same water, sharing in the same cosmic consciousness. Don’t believe me? GO FUCK YOURSELF.
Lolol jk, remember, I’m a comedian.
Completely out of the blue one day in December 2023, Spirit stirred Gerjuan to send me a cherished piece of his art from prison. His random act of kindness inspired me to write him back with a gift of my own: acknowledgement of his talent and worth, gratitude and appreciation for his existence, and interest in hearing more of his story.
Our back and forth continued, a genuine connection was made, and the kindness has spread — much like the wildfires that kicked up in Los Angeles earlier this month, except in the complete opposite way. Incidentally, Gerjuan spent most of 2024 working as a sawyer/cutter in the 100-man institution-based firefighting camp known as Cuesta Conservation Camp #24 in San Luis Obispo.
In his most recent gesture of generosity, Gerjuan gave me an hour of his time to discuss his experience as an wildland incarcerated firefighter in Southern California, covering a 400-mile range from the forests outside of Yosemite to the grasses of the Coachella Valley. I’ve edited our conversation down to a tight 30, presented it here as Episode 002 of “The 40 Year-Old Podcaster,” exclusive to my Substack. May the kindness and humanity Gerjuan and I have shown one another radiate through your auditory receptors and ripple outward in your own life. This is a spread best left uncontained.
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