I resumed work on the rewrite of the chapter for Professor Joan Petersilia at 2:20 this morning. By 7:30 I had completed the project. Had I been able to access a typewriter, I could have typed the document in a couple of hours at most. Prison has made me a fast typist, but the rules of Taft Camp prohibit using typewriters for personal work. Rewriting this chapter has taken about 10 hours, and I think I invested about 40 hours in total to create this first draft. I expect to invest another 40 hours to refine it before publication, though I’m grateful for the opportunity to make this contribution to prison reform.
In order to finish this chapter in five days, I adjusted my schedule. I’ve spent the majority of my writing time over the past two weeks writing projects that have a long lead times. The first project was the sample chapter for my next book proposal. The next project was this chapter draft for Professor Petersilia. As a consequence of this deliberate commitment to goals I set, I have had to sacrifice some of my blog writing energy. Tomorrow morning I intend to catch up by writing several blogs that I’ve been neglecting. It remains a goal of mine to keep readers informed about how I thrive through imprisonment. I hope they see that a key component of my prison adjustment has been setting goals and using them to guide me through each day. All of the goals work in harmony to advance the purpose of my life, which is to contribute to society and to prepare for a successful return.
Following my completion of the rewrite, I went outside to run 10 miles. That boosts my tally to 1129 miles over the past 128 consecutive days. I’m grateful that my body feels strong, without aches, despite the running without a break. I believe the exercise makes me stronger, healthier, wiser, and more disciplined. I intend to exercise every day of 2009, and to run without a day off for as long as I can.
Sunday, 19 April 2009
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