Update On A Friend

Back on June 16th I posted a character reference letter I wrote on behalf a young friend.

Joe begins to repay his debt to society today. He will be spending about 3 months in the county prison, if he behaves himself there and I am certain he will, he will be transferred to a rehab center for another 3 months. He will be spending the weekend going through tests and orientation and then enter the facility full time as of Monday. Joe will not be placed with the general population but rather with the work release group during his time as a guest of the county.

A few weeks ago Joe told me that he did not think that he had a drinking problem, I just stood there glaring at him as I started to wave him off and just walk away he tried to explain. He said he knows he has a problem but he just does not think that the drinking is the core issue and he is hoping to spend his time away getting to what the real problem is He has some serious anger issues and the reckless behavior he has exhibited is a result. He is looking forward to working on his demons and knows he is going to come out of this a changed man. He is determined to close the book on this chapter of his life and begin anew.

I have warned his friends that the Joe they are saying goodbye to this week will not be the Joe they greet this spring when he is released. He will be sober and if my past experience is any indication it is all he is going to want to talk about. He is not going to want to do the same things he did before and some of them may feel some rejection as he puts some distance between himself and those who empowered his previous behavior. They may not like him very much and he may not like them in return. If they truly love their friend Joe they are going to have to accept the new guy and support him as he faces his future or they are going to get pushed aside. I hope they really are his friend.

Here is the e-mail he sent me at 2:30 this morning:

I will write you about getting me a book. I do not know too much about the details yet and probably won't for sure until I am in population Sunday or Monday. I am partially dreading the morning and partially relieved to finally be getting this out of the way so I can get on with my life. I am most concerned not with myself but my loved ones who will be stressing over me the entire time I am away. I somehow feel like this ordeal will be harder on them than it is on me. So I will write until my hand falls off and keep myself busy with letters and visits and phone calls as much as I can. I am even toying with the idea of writing about my experience throughout this. Might make for interesting reading years from now. At any rate, my long year of waiting, speculation and hoping for the best while dreading the worst is finally over. I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you for your support Donald; you are a very good friend.

One of the things Joe and I have in common is our love for what used to be called Social Studies and as you may imagine I have a ton of books that fit into that category. I am going to be spending the next few weeks hitting the bargain bins to find some other books that I hope will teach, inspire and entertain my young friend. I cannot send him any books that involve pornography, violence, drugs, racism or any other antisocial behavior. If you have any suggestions please share them with me.

I will think about Joe every day and I hope that he comes out of this ordeal a better man. He is one of the brightest young men I have ever met and once he pulls it all together I don’t think anything will stop him from becoming a great success at whatever he chooses to do with his life. If you get a chance give a thought to my friend and wish him well. Note; Joe is not his real name so when speaking to G-D, Buddha, Krishna, Mother Earth, Karma, Bruce Springsteen or any other higher power you can refer to him as Donald Flad Jr’s friend.

Something Is Wrong

There is clearly something wrong with me. Something has changed. All pistons are not firing. I am a few ants short of a picnic. The lights are on but no one is home. Shit happens and I don’t react.

Am I jaded, bitter, cynical or just so over it that I stopped caring? If so, how or why did it happen?

Let me give you some examples:

The Catholic Church festival in Roseto allows a game vendor to take shots at a cartoon of the President of The United States. I was appalled by it on many levels and after reading the good Father’s badly written and ridiculous letter to the editor giving his take on the events of that weekend I was really quite upset. But, I did not rant or rave. I did not take to Twitter, Facebook or this blog to rail against it. No. Guy and I discussed it calmly and after awhile I thought the whole affair was so foolish that I did not think I could add anything. I was certain that Lehigh Valley With Love would have done a much better job at boiling this foolishness down.

My blog idol Lehigh Valley Ramblings tries to promote a lame story about Dino Cantelmi getting away with poor driving because he is related by marriage to Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan. One of the local newspapers did not even cover the non-story and the other disproved it. This is Bethlehem: the son’s of the high and mighty always get away with everything. Did I vent to you here or on Twitter did I write a piece on yet another cheap trick by Charlie Dent? No. I commented on Bernie’s blog but I did not return to read a response.

My dear friends over at Lehigh Valley Independent have written some brilliant stuff over the summer and the only thing I feel the need to comment on is whether John Callahan is hotter than Charlie Dent.

Bill Clinton comes to town and after a brief moment of interest I forgot completely about it until I read about it the next day.

John Boehner comes to town and my only interest is how the vampire pale Charlie Dent looks standing next to the tannest man in Congress.

Lisa Boscola tells local restaurants and bars to break the law and I gave it a big yawn.

Sarah Palin said so many outrageous things this summer and made no sense what so ever each time she spoke or tweeted but all I did was shrug my shoulders and mutter things like “If that’s what America wants then that’s what they deserve.” I did not storm around the house, I did not wave my arms, and tears did not come to my eyes in rage.

Dr. Laura showed her true colors (once again) and I did not join in the discussion. I did not take to my blog to defend the First Amendment from her distortion of it. I just let the moment pass.

The media driven uproar over the non-mosque not being built at the World Trade Center site and the moron preacher burning Korans did not provoke much of a reaction from me.

I ignored Glenn Beck.

So what happened to me?

Am I so disgusted by the way the nation has turned on this President that I have given up?

Have I lost the fire in my belly? I used to love being in the arena (as TR used to call it) and lately I could take it or leave it.

To answer my own question above; I am jaded, bitter and cynical but that never stopped me from caring in the past.

Something has stopped clicking and I need to find out what it is. Any thoughts ya’ll have will be most welcome.

Thanks