Well… I kneel down to wrap up a week of lovely lock downs over here at the beach. The week started out normal but by Tuesday afternoon… a combination of standard prison “incidents” mixed with “Officer Appreciation Week” caused the compound to be locked down most of the week. I was unaware that the BOP had an Officer Appreciation Week and that this week entailed officers appreciating each other by enjoying BBQs behind the compound and prison outings such as golf and frisbee golf leaving the compound locked down but I continue to learn new things during this experience. Unfortunately… this was one of the few things that I did learn this past week due to the lack of mental or physical stimulation and enrichment that takes place during these lock down periods. So… I only have a couple things that really stuck with me as I paced the hallway and read as much as possible for what seemed like an eternity. Ironically… both “nuggets” have a common thread of COVID… which was completely unintentional.
First… I just have to acknowledge the khaki suits that were incarcerated during the COVID lockdown. These people were locked in cells or hallways for YEARS. Let me repeat that… YEARS. I talked to a couple guys in here that experienced it and they told me stories of no phones aka no contact to loved ones for 6 months because there was worry about cross contamination on the mouth piece. Zero outdoor exposure. Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches for breakfast… lunch and dinner… every single day for a year an a half until they opened the kitchen to deliver one meal a day. No access to email because once again… they were worried about guys interacting with each other. It had to be an absolutely horrible existence. And on top of that… the virus itself spreading through the prison system like the plague. When I hear these stories… all I can do is shut my mouth and stop complaining about my 2-3 day lockdowns that I have experienced… once again… perspective.
On a brighter note… I read an article this past week that caught my attention and drew some interesting similarities to my current experience of being incarcerated. The article was talking about a restaurant in Bogota that was a popular “power lunch” spot for suits and busy worker bees to wheel and deal during the week pre-pandemic. Their business model was to get people in and out as fast as possible in order to allow for the next 2 – 4 person meeting to sit down… order their power meal with their power drink and get down to the real purpose of the gathering. When the pandemic hit… all of the sudden their entire clientele was now at home… no longer power lunching so they needed to pivot in order to stay alive. The restaurant is owned by a couple and when it came time to figure out what they were going to do in order to make it… the duo looked inward and reflected on the current crisis and environment of the world. They took stock of what genuinely mattered… to them and to society as a whole… and when the doors re-opened… quality of life was at the forefront of their mission. They went against all conventional wisdom when it comes to operating a restaurant. They raised prices… doubled their employee’s salaries… slashed capacity to a dozen tables and set out to re-create the experience. They focused their service on being generous to their customers and their employees alike. They emphasized a well-being in that it felt like the staff wanted to be there just as much as the customer did. The couple built an eco-system in which the people that were making the food and those who were enjoying the food came together for a memorable few hours that were meant to feel like all parties were at a gathering of friends. They created an indoor-outdoor experience filled with unique features such as a custom built tree house on the back patio for young kids to play in during the meal. These small touches made all the difference and ultimately were what allowed the couple to survive the pandemic.
Now this was a cute story and definitely a restaurant that I would like to try at some point but more importantly… it made me take a look at my current experience and how if I take it as an opportunity to inventory my life and decide what is actually important… I can come out of this thing at my “re-opening” as a better… deeper… “fuller” version of myself. I think the overall theme here of quality over quantity rings true in countless ways in life. There are many times when we get caught up in the “more is better” mentality and it isn’t until we gain some perspective through losing something or someone that we take the time to re-evaluate our priorities and ultimately start down a path that will lead us to many more smiles than tears.
I believe I am walking that path… gaining more and more confidence each day and it feels exponentially better than any “thing” I could ever have or wanted to have in this life. Now when I am able to walk this path with my boys and my loved ones by side… man… that will be when life begins.
Stay Healthy. Stay Active. Enjoy a long, lazy lunch in “Bogota”… where ever that may be for you.