Monday, 23 February 2009
I began reading this morning at 2:30. By 3:06 I sat in the quiet room with my reading gear and began to write my first blog article. I wrote until 6:00. I had a meeting scheduled with TOAD today, so I needed to finish both my writing and my exercise early. As usual, I ran 10 miles. It rained throughout my run, but the weather did not stop me from lifting my tally to 669 miles over the past 73 consecutive days.
Following my run I returned to the housing unit. I showered, shaved, and began preparing for the TOAD meeting. Our TOAD outreach program ordinarily travels out to schools in the Kern County area. Today we were preparing for a delivery inside the visiting room of Taft Camp. Rather than speaking to at-risk youth from the community, we were speaking with the children of TOAD members. Staff members were also scheduled to appear, and we were told that they may bring their children.
Although I do not have children, since the meeting was a family affair, I received permission to invite my wife, Carole. We have been together for longer than seven years, though Carole has never seen me speak in front of an audience. Speaking in front of audiences is an integral part of my life. I’ve created numerous speaking opportunities over the past 21 years, yet the only time a family member was authorized to attend a presentation where I would speak was in 1992, when I spoke at the commencement ceremony for my graduation from Mercer University. My sister, Julie, made the trip to see me.
I have been training to build a speaking career upon release for many years. Naturally, I’ve shared my aspirations with Carole. She has played an essential role in my preparations. Carole types volumes of work that I write, and during our regular visits, I share with her by rehearsing aspects of my presentations. For many years, I’ve looked forward to speaking with my wife in the audience. I felt happy that I would have such an opportunity today.
The staff sponsor made an extra effort to coordinate the meeting in the visiting room. Prison rules limited the time we would have. The family members were told to arrive by 11:00, and I expected the presentation would last just over one hour. We would reserve time for visiting after the presentation, and the staff was coordinating food for the event.
The presentation went well, and I describe it in a separate blog article entitled A Presentation For My Wife. Following the speeches by all the members of our group, we had an opportunity to mingle with others from the audience. A staff member’s comment upset me, but I did not reveal the umbrage I took at her remark. It was simply a part of the prison experience, and characteristic of the reasons I saw prisons as contributing to so much continuing failure.
I left the presentation with gratitude for the time I had to share with my wife. The staff member’s comment made me more eager to wash the filth of this prison experience from my life so I could begin living with Carole as a man rather than a prisoner.
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