Thirty Ninth Visit to Taft

Friday was a happy day. I awoke early, drove to Taft, and was greeted by a beautiful sight as I sped along the highway. In the distance were several big, colorful balloons. I've never seen that there before and can't possibly imagine why people would be ballooning at 8am over the flat, barren land of Taft, but they were, and it made me smile. Not much could have happened that day to wipe the smile off my face, as Ron, and my calendar told me we were finishing the 40th week, with 32 to go. That made me happy.

"The three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for." Joseph Addison (1672-1719. He was an English essayist, poet, playwright and politician). Smart man. Having something to do is essential. A passion for your work makes life worth living. Although I am not working right now (except for sporadic part time jobs) I am passionate about my avocations. Bridge, yoga and reading bring me great joy. Ron is definitely NOT passionate about his current work (gardening), but no one was more passionate about their past work than Ron, and I believe whatever he does in the future will be done with great enthusiasm. Something to love is another essential to a happy life, and for me that starts with loving oneself. You've got to love yourself before you can love someone/something else. The final ingredient to happiness, something to hope for, is a key element to true happiness. I'm thinking right now about the Chilean Miners and how they never gave up hope. I know I will be thinking about them for years to come, as the rescue and recovery of those men touched me deeply and gave me great hope for the future of mankind.

So I guess you could say I have all three essentials of happiness. Ron has two out of three right now, so I guess that makes him happy 2/3 of the time! He's really extremely happy, even though his work is not satisfying. The happiness he feels from the expectation of my weekly visits makes up for the lack of passion for his work.

I recently heard that a book will soon be released about the life of Nelson Mandela during his 26 years in prison. I can't wait to read it. He must have been a happy man, even while incarcerated. He was passionate about his desire to change his country, he had something to love and he had a lot to hope for. I was listening to an interview about him and learned that one emotion he never allowed himself to show during his incarceration was anger. He said it was a wasted emotion. He never showed it then or in all the years since he was released. During the course of his incarceration he must have had plenty of practice in tempering this emotion. I think about Ron and what he has told me about incarceration, how hard it is to keep your emotions in check, and can only imagine what Mandela endured. It's unimaginable. Hope is what kept Mandela going. When you think about it, in or out of jail, hope is what keeps most of us going.

Ron and I are both happy right now. It might seem hard to imagine that he, in prison, and me, wife of someone in prison, could be happy, but we are. We have a deep love for each other, great hope for our future, and for me anyway, stuff to do that I find fulfilling. Ron's work may not be fulfilling right now, but the help he is giving other inmates and the bonds he is forming at Taft make him very happy. Finally, counting the days until June also makes Ron happy. I can hear it in his voice when he calls each night.