Pay It Forward

Last night I was on the phone with my older brother, Brent. He is struggling with the idea and reality of unemployment.

He struggles with the idea of not having a job because in the last twelve years of his life he’s had a plan.

See, he has been incarcerated for those last twelve years. He’s had a plan to become gainfully employed and to catch up on life. Life as he has planned it. Life that he has missed out on. Or has he? [More on that later.]

He is struggling with the reality of unemployment because he, like so many others, cannot find work. Every day he loads up his lawn mower and drives around town looking for someone willing to pay him for some good ol’ manual labor. The problem is that no one wants to pay him to mow their lawn. Or is it a problem? [More on that, too, later.]

So he’s had a plan. In his mind, this is rough. He hates sitting around and not working. He hates spending gas money on a seemingly uneventful job hunt. So I assured him yet again that he’s not alone. He’s not alone because he has God on his side. He has his family support system. Then I reminded him that he also has food to eat and a roof over his head. (He is living with our grandmother, Nanny.)

“But Stephanie, there’s no difference now than when I was locked up. It’s just the same as when I was in prison!” he said.

Initially shocked, I tried to hide the surprise in my voice. “Ummmm, no; this is NOTHING like when you were in prison. Besides the creature comforts that you have now, you are not indebted to society any longer.” (Maybe that doesn’t seem like much to someone straight off the chain, but to me, this is huge.)

He agreed with me and went on to explain how frustrated he is right now because things aren’t going his way. I totally get that. Totally. But even now, I’m so taken aback by his comparison. I can only imagine how detrimental this train of thought could be. If an ex-prisoner starts to think like this how long will it be before they decide...