Kindness.
In a time when there is so much hatred… division… violence and destruction in the world… specifically in Israel… I have tried my best to focus on a “simple” act of kindness that I was lucky enough to experience this past week. I must say before diving in that this has been much easier said than done. The events that are currently taking place in Israel are absolutely horrific… they have haunted my thoughts and dreams and I pray for everyone impacted over there and here. We are living in extremely scary times that I worry are only going to get worse and intensify before they get better and I feel absolutely helpless from where I stand.
That being said… as with every piece of my life these days… I must acknowledge the realities of the aspects of life outside of my control but focus my energy on the areas that I can… so… kindness…
Since I have worked in the kitchen… which is going on 8 months now (crazy!)… I have been extremely interested in learning new recipes… reading magazines like Bon A Petit and Food & Wine (thanks to my incredible sister for getting me the subscriptions) and consuming basically anything that I can related to the food industry. Because of this new passion of mine… I have been lucky enough to form a friendship with an older gentlemen in my unit that was/is a very successful business man in Romania and throughout Europe but like all of us in here… made some bad decisions that landed him behind these walls and living next to me in F Unit. Although his main business is in the recycling industry… he also owns and operated… prior to arriving at T.I… 4 restaurants in Romania, London and Spain. He absolutely loves food… he cooks every single day in the unit and would spend hours upon hours with me talking about eggplant parmesan… beef stuffed cabbage… the perfect tomato sauce… or how to make the perfect waffle batter. I have thoroughly enjoyed our chats over the 8 months… some may be about 20 minutes longer than I would prefer 😉 but all in all… I am grateful for his friendship and have benefited greatly from his vast knowledge of food and recipes.
So… this is going to seem a bit off topic but stay with me… this past week I was sitting in my room… packing tape and workout glove in hand… feverishly trying to tape together the middle finger of my glove because it has a hole at the top in which my finger hangs out of while I am working out. In the real world… I would simply go buy another pair of gloves but in my current world… commissary does not have work out gloves in stock at the moment and finding a pair that someone else is willing to give up is a extremely unlikely. As I am pulling the tape… biting it off the roll and working on my little project… my Romanian “homeboy” (weird to refer to him as this as he is a very “polished” man but here we are) comes to the door and wants to talk to me about properly cooking pork because I am going to be slow cooking pork this coming week for pulled pork sandwiches on Friday. I stop what I am doing and we dive into our pork discussion and I think nothing of it once he leaves the room. Until… I am coming back to the unit after a workout Friday night and when I get to my room and take a step in… I notice a couple things laying on my bed by my pillow. I look a bit closer and notice a brand new pair of gloves sitting on top of a book titled “Letters to a Young Chef” by Daniel Boulud. I immediately get choked up… tears forming in my eyes…
Tears because even in an environment as hostile as the one that I currently reside… there is kindness here. Tears because the people that I live with and myself beat ourselves up every single day for the horrible decisions that we have made in the past but these decisions do not completely define the man. The man has the choice to learn from the decisions and better himself and bring out the goodness that lives within all of us while refusing to allow the negative impulses to take hold of us ever again. Tears because I am able to form bonds with people so incredibly different from the person that I see in the mirror but still genuinely connected to them because of our current situation. Tears because I am so grateful that in this moment… I am able to see kindness exemplified in a tangible way and it reiterates the notion that it does still exist… and I refuse to not believe that. And… ultimately… tears because I am a softey in my old age 😉
I thanked him profusely for my gifts and started reading the book that night before bed… kindness… it makes the world a better place and I just wish that we could all agree on that…
Stay Healthy. Stay Active. Lead with Kindness. Pray for Israel and beyond.