Today at the breakfast table I heard two neighbors, Coach and Pablo, talking about another lifer we knew who paroled. Before he left, Roger had become part of the hospice program here at the prison. Seems he was the subject of an article they both had read recently.

I also knew Roger, so of course I wanted to read the article too. "Where was it published?" I asked them.

"It's in the New Times. A cover story," Pablo said. "Volume 28, issue 33, right on the cover."

Coach added, "You can borrow it from me. I have a copy in my cell."

"Thanks!" I said.

Coach gave me the article after we got off work. It talked about more than Roger. It covered the hospice care program Roger was part of, and the history of how it started, and the effect it has on the inmates who serve in the program, like Roger. It's an informative article. It shows a side of prison which doesn't often get seen in the media, so I recommend everyone read it.

Today I finally caught up to my former cellmate Kevin. I'm proud of all he's accomplished since leaving here. He's proud of me too. It was a good reunion. We still have a lot of catching up to do. We didn't get enough time-- he was just starting to open up. There was more we both wanted to touch on. For right now, he's living in a different part of the prison, so I'll just have to wait and see when I can run into him again.

Before Mass another friend, David, who's been down over 37 years, told me he is finally going home. David is another who had a parole date that got snatched by the Governor. He won his fight in Superior Court after a guy named Angelo wrote a writ for him. At the end of the service, the priest called David up to the altar and said a prayer over him.

Called Mom after chapel. She picked up after the second ring. Told me about the funeral of a close family friend: Mr. James, died at the age of 82. He lived across the street and I grew up with his kids. My mom said everyone turned out for the funeral. She gave Mr. James' son a hug for me. His daughter Karen mentioned reading a letter I'd written to their father before he passed-- it made him smile.

Today brought good and sad news. 

In the morning I found out that a former cellmate I was close to has returned to the prison. In prison, the bond between cellmates can sometimes become closer than brothers, especially when both men have life sentences and they have turned their lives around.  When that's the case, conversations can go really deep because they revolve around healing, setting things right, and growing into the full stature of a man.   We spoke about divorces, fractured family relationships, dysfunctional family members, deaths, past mistakes, regrets and remorse, and the pain of being misunderstood, of being associated with prisoner stereotypes.  In prison, I've found I can't have those conversations with too many people. 

When such a friend transfers out or goes home, you try to keep in touch. And when providence brings that friend back into the same institution with you, it feels like a reunion, even when you haven't seen the guy yet. I was smiling.

In the evening my smile diminished when I heard that Pablo from Panama had been privately dealing with bad news. I see Pablo at least three times a day. We often walk to breakfast and dinner together. He lives two cells away. Over the past five years we've played chess together and talked on countless occasions. We've been in some of the same self-help groups. I see him regularly in church. At Mass he is often called upon to be a reader, which speaks to how well most people in here think of him.

It came as no surprise last summer when the Parole Board found him suitable and set a date for him. But in California, that's not the end of it. The Parole Board still has 120 days to change its mind, and after that the Governor has another 30 days to say "no."

In January the Governor said "no." I see why Pablo didn't feel like talking about it, but I wish he had said something so I could've tried to console him. I found out about Pablo's cross from another brother who goes to church with us. He said Pablo filed an appeal and it's going through the court now. It goes without saying that Pablo is not getting his hopes up. He is cautiously guarding his emotions, because it wasn't too long ago when he had the rug pulled out from under him.

This was a good day. Work was easier and at the end of the day I received five pieces of mail-- whoopeee! I managed to write responses to two of them before eight o'clock.

Today I helped facilitate the last part of an Anger Management workshop for the Life Awareness Program (LAP). It went well. Every time I facilitate I get better and learn something new. In order to reach my dreams I have to keep learning.

I am reading Let the Nations Be Glad! by John Piper. It's a book on missions that's part of the TUMI curriculum. The stories of the missionaries in it are pretty moving. I really like this book. 

I am the type of reader who gets excited about learning and I love to talk about good books. This book by John Piper is a good book for many reasons. It's not just written for missionaries; every Christian's faith and walk would be strengthened by it. Even folks who aren't Christian could learn a lot from this book. Wherever it speaks of "world-changing missions" one could substitute the term "public service"...

Lord knows our inner cities, our states, our country needs a whole lot of people to answer the call to public service. And whether we answer the call "missions" or "public service," the aspect of suffering while doing the right thing will pop up. This book tells us how to prepare for it, learn from it, and grow while modeling the correct response to those who will be watching us. Talk about practical and high-value information! See why I like this book?