Humor and Humbling

I know I'm a little late, but I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Groundhog Day! I actually had forgotten about this silly holiday until my sister, Victoria came home that day. She told us that "Positawny Phil" had seen his shadow so it was six more weeks of winter. After I picked myself up off of the floor from laughing so hard, we had a little lesson in Groundhog Day. More specifically I explained to her the the groundhog's name is Punxsutawny Phil, not Positawny. I said I was positively sure of it. Ha ha ha!

On Monday I broke tradition went to my ward FHE. I know, breathe in, breathe out. It was a shock to most people. I teach a piano lesson until about 6:30 and they usually start at 6:00, not to mention that I usually don't want to participate in most of the activities. This week we got to go on a tour of the State Prison. The Warden is one of the High Counselors for my ward. We didn't get to go into the hard core part of prison, but we went to their drug rehab center. Well, everyone who is in there was on drugs. They are not now, but that's one of the reasons that they landed in jail. I take it back, it was called the Corrections center, but it's still about the same thing. There were several thousand men in there (we went to the male facility), in a space that was uncomfortably small. They had like a hundred beds, bunk beds with 5 or less inch think mattresses, several metal tables with benches hooked to them and toilets and showers where you could see the man next to you in a space about as big as a full size basketball court. As we walked around and saw the men, the Warden said that they felt like they were on display - like a circus. But I tell you what, I don't know who felt more uncomfortable, us or them. We stared or tried not to stare at them and they stared right back at us. It was a very sobering place. We also saw a video about how the prison operated. Then a panel of six inmates came in and talked to us and answered our questions. Two of the guys on the panel had hit and killed someone while driving drunk. The rest of them had all committed a crime using a deadly weapon. One of the guys had been in and out three times. The part of prison that they were in was a rehab of sorts. They got an education, therapy and learned how to cope in the real world. Of all the people that go through this program only about 10% of them become repeat offenders. Whereas those who don't go through this program about 80% are repeat offenders. One of the guys was going up for his parole hearing in the next month or two and it was interesting to hear about the goals this guy had. I mean, I felt like a slacker listening to him. It really made me want to re-evaluate my life and set some better goals. It was really inspiring. Overall it was sobering and educational trip. I mean most of these guys started on drugs when they were just 8 years old. I wish that we, as a society, could take the eight year olds on a trip to the prison and show them where they will end up if they take drugs. I could not stand that kind of lack of privacy. It make me uncomfortable just thinking about it. I really felt bad for some of the guys in there. What a hard life they have led, all because of their free agency. It makes me grateful for my own ability to make good decisions for me and those around me.

I finished reading Persuasion this past week. As I read I highlighted all of my favorite passages. It was so wonderful! A couple of days ago I went onto the Project Gutenburg website and copied all of these parts into a word document. (BTW if you haven't been to Project Gutenburg you really should check it out. It is amazing!) So over the next couple of days, weeks, however long it take me to get through them all I will be posting these parts as well as my own commentary on them. I can't even tell you how excited I am!!!