An Old Blog (Slightly Edited)

At a meeting with my (binder? portfolio? folder?). It contains things collected over the years (muy e senior packrat). In one slot are business cards from old meetings and interviews. One card was from a warden at a prison where I taught classes.

Flashback: a couple of weeks after he gave me that card, he was in a motorcycle accident and died instantly.

What is the make-up of a man that makes him comfortable with dangerous choices? The bike he died on was new, and the weather was clear and perfect, so perhaps he had not enough experience and a little too much machine for a twisting mountain road.

And his vocation: warden. It's gotta be on the "most important," "most criticized," and "most dangerous" job lists. No one is happy with a warden, especially his clients and, in this state, the employees. His choices are probably mostly negative: who goes in the Hole, who gets punitive punishment, who works double-shifts, etc. Yet he must have thought that it was important enough to put his well-being and safety on the line every single day of his life.

Looking at it this way, the decision to get on a motorcycle was probably pretty easy. And final.