Friday, November 24, 2023

#16 Jail- The butterfly and the snake

Tonight he watched while cell after cell was being let out for rec time. They get one hour a day out of the cell, and it looked like they were going to forget him tonight. 

He was finally let out. He called. I'm always anxiously waiting his calls. I start waiting around 4, tonight he was able to get his first call through at 5:44. The science book on Alchamy has turned out to be a huge disappointment, but he was able to secure another book for tomorrow, a book that another inamte was just finishing up. He was ablel to call twice tonight. In between calls I googled "how to not go crazy when you are in a jail cell".  Never would I have ever thought that that would be something that I would search out. 

Why are there not an abundance of books in jail? 

He has a stainless steel water fountain that doubles as a toilet. When the cold water gets turned on it doesn't stop for 45 minutes. He has gotten used to drinking hot water, because the sound of the water running gets really irritating. 

Another day goes by- I wonder when this will get easier?

I recently read a book that talked about a butterfly and a snake. A person went up to a mountainside and a butterfly landed on her shoulder. She wanted so badly for the butterfly to stay. That same woman saw a snake the next day and was scared and tried to hit it away. The day after, the woman saw a rope on the road that reminded her of the snake.  She immediately felt a jolt of fear as she remembered the snake she had seen the day before.  Both reactions to the butterfly and to the snake were reactions that would cause her harm. The lasting impression of the snake made it so she avoided other things that reminded her of the snake. The longing for the butterfly to be on her shoulder, made it so everytime she went to the beautiful mountainside she couldn't help but feel disappointment because she wanted the butterfly to come back and fly on her shoulder. Both things were making it so she couldn't enjoy the present moment.

 It's a good reminder- even though its hard to implement sometimes.

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