That does sound like a wonderful time. You are making me reconsider my plans for November... My wife and I might be able to carve out a week or so...

And I really appreciate your compassion for that young man. Things can get better for people in prison, though that is not the usual course.  Living where I do, and knowing the people I know, I am sometimes amazed that so few are filled with violence. The signs of negation for Black men seem far more constant than the occasions of uplift and support. And that negation comes from their own communities, as well, which is deeply sad, though unsurprising. I was just talking to a new neighbor, who's keeping her son indoors, because there are some young men on the block. I've known them since they were her son's age, found little jobs for them, talked to them, fed them, learned a bit about who they were. But if people don't know you, six inches in height makes the sweetest, gentlest, kid seem like someone to be feared.