Today I received a letter from Chris, my closest childhood friend. Chris and I grew up in Lake Forest Park and went through elementary school, junior high, and high school together. Our friendship continued after high school, but it has been on again, off again through my imprisonment. I understand why, and it made me happy to receive a letter from him that expressed his understanding as well.
My imprisonment is much more difficult on those in the real world who love me. They sometimes have misperceptions when they visualize my life. Although I try to convey that I’m filled with inner peace, that I’m grateful for the many blessings I’ve received, people outside, people like my friend Chris, have a hard time accepting that I’m completely at ease with where I am.
This phase of my imprisonment is an especially easy one for me because I know I have 90 percent of it behind me. I don’t know how much more time I’ll serve, but it doesn’t really matter anymore. I’ve done the heavy lifting, and the preparations that I made early in my term give me confidence that I’ll triumph over the obstacles that I am certain await my release.
When release does come, it will be wonderful to connect again with old friends. Since Chris and I were such good friends as children and young adults, I look forward to reliving memories with him and his wife. The funny thing about our history is that both Chris and I married women we grew up with; all four of us attended the same schools and participated in the same summer activities in our community. When my term comes to an end, we’ll all be close to 50, so clearly our lives will have changed significantly. I look forward to catching up.
Another irony is that although I’ve been in prison for decades, both Chris and his wife know much more about me than I know about them. My life is so transparent because of my writing, publishing, and Web postings that anyone can follow my journey if they want to read. My knowledge about other people, though, is kind of stuck in time—back in the 1980s. I remember Chris as being young and athletic. I cannot imagine him as a mature adult with a family of his own; that was not how I knew him. Time has moved on for him, but I don’t have a clear vision of how a quarter century changes a person.
I had the same experience with my wife. When we reconnected almost a decade ago, I told her that I wouldn’t have recognized her if I had simply run into her in the world. Carole is much more beautiful now as a woman than the pretty girl I remembered from high school.
It feels good for me to connect with childhood friends, and with people I knew before my imprisonment. It will be nice to build new friendships, too.
Ran 10 miles / 4,907 miles over 551 days
100 pushups / 64,600 pushups in 2010
Wednesday, 16 June 2010
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