Letter Writing

Hope abounds.

 When I made the commitment to write every man in white* in my family** or that I had established a relationship with at least once every two months with no expectation that they would write me back, I didn’t fully appreciate what I was committing to. I suspect I am not the only one who makes commitments and then, upon finding out what is involved, has to wrestle with whether to reassess the commitment.

I hadn’t taken into account that some of the men I’d committed to write have very long prison sentences.  One man, for instance, will not come up for parole for the first time until April 2034.

Also, what do you say after the first couple of letters, especially to those who do not write you back? And, the number of men in white in my family or that I had established a relationship with kept growing.  At one point, I was writing thirty-one men in white. 

But I get ahead of myself. 

Every person is created in the image of God. To honor God, we treat everything God created with love and respect, including men and women who have earned their way into prison. I asked myself “How do you communicate love and respect in a letter?” 

For one thing, I used my best stationery, the same stationery I would use if I were writing the President of the United States. I didn’t use run of the mill flag stamps—I chose special ones and put thought into whether I believed it would speak to the recipient.  If a man loved dogs, I used dog stamps when available.

The standard I set for each letter was every letter would contain hope and I would always tell the truth. When you are looking for it, hope abounds—scripture, books, poetry, art, kindness. Truth telling is the hardest.

*In Texas prisons, all inmates wear white.

**At the retreat I was a volunteer in, we sat at tables of nine (called families) in assigned seats for the duration of the retreat.

TAG LINE FOR THIS POST--          Hope abounds