Every week, the email hits our inboxes and you can hear the newsroom issue a collective groan: It’s time to write a blog. Uggghhhh.
I can’t speak for my esteemed colleagues, but I take it as a weekly challenge to find something — anything — that seems interesting. This week, as I sat and thought about the possibilities, it seemed the well had run dry.
Walking into the Fuel City truck stop on Riverfront in Dallas, I grabbed a soft drink and a bag of popcorn and waited my turn in line to pay, still thinking about a topic for a blog. There’s a rack near the cash registers where greeting cards are sold and as I casually studied the rack, I realized that these weren’t the typical, goofy cards. No “Happy Birthday” or “Good Luck in Retirement.” These cards carry messages like “I LOVE AN INMATE.” “YOU’RE NOT MISSING ANYTHING ON THE STREET, BUT THE STREET IS MISSING YOU.” These greeting cards are intended for Fuel City customers headed up Riverfront to visit prisoners at the Lew Sterrett Criminal Justice Center.
The prisoner cards seemed a little strange, maybe kind of funny, at first. Then I thought about what it might be like to sit alone in a room…waiting. Guilty or innocent, the boredom for jail inmates must be insufferable. The recipients of those greetings might be more grateful than any others.
Jim Ryan