Recently, I had a friend comment on this blog with the remark, "Why don't you write on your blog?" The question gave me pause. In the past few years, I have written to prison inmates. I now have four. Perhaps, letters to them each week fulfills my creative juices. Another friend questioned the wisdom of writing prisoners saying it probably does't accomplish much. As I seldom hear from any of them, it was a good question.
Some how I feel a connection with the prisoners I write. With one exception, I don't know what they look like or why they are in prison. Maybe the fact that teachers are considered by some to be the largest incarcerated group in the United States. I've visited a prison several times. They are glum places without any joy. Viktor Frankl decided while in a German concentration camp that the Nazis could take everything away from him, but he still had the freedom to choose who he was and think what he wanted to think. I hope the letters I write will give the prisoners who receive them some of that, independent thinking. Perhaps the freedom to think and the knowledge someone on the outside cares will help a bit. If not, I've given it a shot.
