Solitary

Snowfall in Victorian Village, 2010
my turn to shovel our walks 

This morning, I watched a National Geographic program on the effects of solitary confinement on inmates.  In particular the program focused on a penitentiary in Pennsylvania that houses only inmates in solitary confinement.  In the case of this prison, the inmates are kept in solitary for a minimum of 18 months, average of two years, and five years is not atypical. Medical and biological tests are conclusive: this type of inhumane treatment produces exactly the opposite as to what is intended -- inmates who are less capable of dealing with other people and the psychological tests of this life.

Included in the major impacts are:

• A visceral need to be hyper-diligent in awareness of surroundings
• An inability to build or sense community
• A lack of impulse control and tendency toward compulsive behavior

What is interesting to me, is that this happens to us all.  

As we become more isolated by our neighbors, we become more fearful of them and increase our isolation from them.  It becomes impossible to build community where thriving communities once stood.  Take for example, neighborhoods and kids.  Where kids are isolated from their neighborhoods to go to school (through bussing, etc), the neighbors can no longer effectively care for the kids.  Distance grows and people become afraid of each other.  Kids are increasingly isolated and become more afraid of strangers in their daily travels.  Kids become connected to kids with the same fears (no families; no community) and create their own through mechanisms like gangs. Remember, that the part of our brains that develops and controls discernment doesn't begin to be engaged until late teenage or early adulthood.  

Then, think about the people you know who are addicts.  Substance abuse often emanates from the loneliness of isolation (whatever type of isolation that may be).  

At my home in Columbus' Victorian Village, I knew all of my neighbors.  We sat on our front porches.  We supported and looked out for one another.  We knew that if there were problems we were not alone.  Not so much here in Cleveland.  I, for one, am without a job and feeling professionally isolated. My neighborhood has become rougher around the edges and people are more personally isolated.  I have been not feeling like walking the neighborhood and I've been drinking too much.  Too much. 

But all of that is about to change.  It is spring and a time for renewal.  I have been outside, raking the leaves, tending my garden, and walking the neighborhood.  I have reached out to area non-profits and offered my services.  I am still not feeling very well, but I am feeling better.  

So, when you see that neighbor who is alone or that kid walking home from school, engage them.  Look them in the eye and notice they are there.  Say, "hello."  Every time.  Until they hear you.  

This is how we may begin to regain our neighborhoods and our selves.  It may help people and communities who were thought to be unreachable regain a sense of peace. 

Friends...and Facebook

Facebook is has been an interesting journey for me.  Immediately upon joining I reconnected literally with hundreds of people with whom I spent my childhood -- their children were on FB and so were they.  It was nothing but shear pleasure to see pictures of their children, communicate about life as it is and share in the sorrows and joys of our lives now reconnected.

I have made friends on FB....probably dozens of people who were connected to me through friends that have now become real and sometimes just virtual parts of my daily support system. I have seen relationships rise and fall and rise again.  I have seen people find jobs, love, work... I have learned and taught; loved, laughed, angered and been provoked to action because of Facebook.  I have traveled, donated, purchased items when people were in need because of what I read.  I have been moved to fit of giggle and tears.

A very sad thing happened, though.  In part, because of Facebook, I have lost a friend.  A friend who is really struggling with the transitions and ironies in life about whom I have come to deeply care.  I offended her in ways completely unintended.  My opinions and means of voicing them struck a chord in her that was so unpleasant that she chose to end the relationship.  And so it goes.

Who knows what the future may bring?

In the loss of interaction with a friend, and in the spirit of all of the friendships that brighten my day, I am brought back to the word of Ruiz and his "Four Agreements."

1. Be impeccable with your word
2. Don't take anything personally
3. Don't make assumptions
4. Always do your best

Yes.  I will continue to live by these words.