Prison Break! But where's Morgan Freeman?

As everyone knows, several weeks ago two convicted murderers escaped from a maximum security prison in a godforsaken area of upstate New York. After a manhunt involving more than 1000 cops, one of the escapees was recently shot and killed and the other was captured a few days later. 

This was a big news story. Prison escapes have always been fascinating, whether in fiction or in real life. And this escape was definitely worthy of "The Count of Monte Cristo." It involved almost unbelievable feats of planning, cutting, climbing, crawling, and tunneling over many months, or possibly years. 

The prisoners also seem to have talked some prison workers into helping them: a woman, whose husband they promised to kill once they got out; and a male guard, apparently an art lover, whom they bribed with paintings and drawings created by one of the cons. (And they're not bad!) 

Certain features of the escape -- the planning over long periods of time, for instance -- have inspired comparisons with "The Shawshank Redemption," the 1994 film adaption of a Stephen King short novel, starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. Although the film was not initially a commercial success, it was nominated for multiple Academy Awards (but didn't win) and has since gained great popularity. 

In fact, surveys have revealed that millions of people consider "The Shawshank Redemption" to be one of the greatest movies ever made. Ask anyone about it and they'll tell you, "I love that film!"

I happen to agree that it's a very powerful story. It hooks into the conventional appeal of prison escape stories, but then adds a deeper dimension. 

We're all in prison, sort of, aren't we? We're all stuck doing repetitive tasks that seem to have little benefit, at least not for us. But we've got to keep at it, because we're stuck with it, just like the characters in "The Shawshank Redemption" are stuck in the penitentiary.

So how do survive in that situation? What the film suggests, I believe, is the need for an escape plan, the more elaborate the better, concocted and executed over many years, or even over the course of a whole "life sentence."

But here's the twist. The plan itself is the escape. Whether or not you ever do get outside the walls, just having a plan can radically change your day-to-day experience. It's got to be an actual plan, however, not just a "dream." 

If you been in the exterminating business for fifteen years and you've got fifteen more to go, you can plan to become a hunting guide in Alaska some day. But if you've been in the exterminating business for fifteen years and you're five feet sour inches tall, you can plan to play in the National Basketball Association when you retire. That's just a dream -- and if you invest too much in a dream, it can turn into a nightmare. 

In "The Shawshank Redemption" film -- and in the New York prison break -- the escapes were actually "successful." The walls were breached. That may be too much to hope for in many cases, but you don't have to hope. You have to plan. If you need to hope for anything, just hope for the best.