My days in Juvenal Detention

 

If you know me, I would think you would consider me an affable character.  However, did you know I spent days in Juvenal Detention?  As Paul Harvey would say, here is the rest of the story.

Have a particularly good friend Nick whom I’ve known for decades.  From riding local mountain bike trails to mission trips in far off, and crazy places.  We have seen and experienced a lot together.  Now days Nick works as a carpenter extraordinaire, and has a contract with a local interior design company.  He installs high-end closets and pantries for mostly new home construction in particularly nice homes.  These installs are constructed of large and heavy puzzle pieces, and that’s where I enter the story.  I help him as a part-time assistant installer. 

This past week instead of working on new homes, we have been installing closets and a pantry in the local juvenal detention center.  We have been working up close and personal near the cells and open areas of the jail.  In the military I’ve spent considerable time working security in a nuclear storage area, so I’m familiar with thick concrete and steel doors.  This however, was a place of discord and disharmony more than being around nuclear bombs.

Needless to say, it’s been an education.  Specifically in the use of synergy.  These kids only talk in loud voices, and what I would call a travesty of the English language.  Kids were ultimately tearing each other down and making life a living hell there.  Synergy can be used in a negative fashion just as opposed to a positive one.

Lesson here can be learned.  We can build each other up to be more than just a group of individuals, or very much the opposite.  Maybe its time to invest in some love and care in our neighbors.  Take the time to attend socials and offer some encouragement.  If we have a chance to make life better not only for ourselves, but those arounds us let's take it.