Our friend called Sunday night and talked to Diana (I was flying home from Nashville). She's doing better, and is getting along with the other women there. It sounds like she's bored; she's read several novels, and she doesn't ordinarily read fiction (ed: except the newspaper). The jail provides AA meetings and she's been going to those, I think primarily for something to do. She said that she was amazed by what some of the other women have endured. They're not allowed to call cellphones so she gave us some messages to pass along to people she can't call.
Two weeks to go.
Monday, February 2, 2009
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Discovered your blog a few days ago and have been reading with interest certain threads on here, including the one about your incarcerated friend. I live in Utah, and it's too bad she can't see more of our fair state than the inside of a jail, even if it is near the cool town of Park City. (Wouldn't matter what neighborhood it's in if that's the only spot you get to see.)
Glad to hear they have AA meetings and that she's sitting in on them. I've attended a few 12-step meetings in my life. Their "Big Book" is not too distant from the "Good Book" in encouragement and insight. But it was the Twelve Steps & Twelve Traditions (1939) that seemed to me the most inspired writing in the English language for the past hundred years. I know what she means about amazement at hearing other people's stories (I assume from being in the AA meetings--that she was referring to that context). Whether she hears of other people's struggles through the meetings or just by rubbing shoulders with folks in general, that kind of exposure to different and perhaps more difficult personal paths could be an unexpected benefit of her time there. Let's hope this hard situation not only stretches her and enlarges her mind, but deepens her heart and ends up actually strengthening her spirit.
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