Zen in the Prison Tweets of Ross Ulbricht

“It’s a brand new day. It is ours to live and enjoy, to make something of or not, and then to be lost forever.” — Ross Ulbricht, from prison.

Every time Ross Ulbricht’s name appears on my Twitter feed, I pause for a moment. My eyes lift off my laptop screen. I glance around the room and out the window. There’s a whole world out there. And any time I want, I can get up and check it out.

Meanwhile, Ross Ulbricht is stuck in a prison cell, somehow sending tweets out into a world he’ll likely never see again.

I would never log into Twitter seeking wisdom or spiritual insight. Exactly to the contrary, I love it for the rage and unexpected wit. In point of fact, I follow Ross Ulbricht because he’s a wildly polarizing character in American politics and culture. He’s the Dread Pirate Roberts, creator of the world’s most infamous dark web drug market. He’s a cautionary tale against libertarian fanaticism. He’s the hero of Nick Bilton’s true-crime thriller American Kingpin.

But when I stumble upon a Ross Ulbricht tweet, I see kindness, sadness, patience, and acceptance.