These signs of students approaching campus made me think about the amount of writing they are about to engage in—writing is, after all, an important way to learn and a key way to demonstrate what one has learned.  Students will write impromptu responses for a given class, more developed essays on assigned topics and research papers resulting from long-term projects.  This is especially true of high-school seniors and first-year college students.  I write to alert you of this basic fact and to present the glad tidings of an easy way for you to become well prepared for these projects, starting right now, long before they are even assigned.

In December of 2007, Andre Smith's son, Daniel, was murdered.  I was fortunate to interview Andre recently and learn how approach to life has enabled him to cope with death of his son.  Although disabled, he volunteers weekly at Nash Correctional Institution, leading workshops to help prisoners realize peace through compassion and forgiveness; helping the prisoners in this way also benefits the prison staff and all of us on the outside.  Here he explains how and why he does it.

Really meditation is about your state of mind and finding peace within yourself.  In our meditation class, I am learning the true meaning of words like generosity, forgiveness, compassion and control.  True generosity isn’t only towards your friends and family.  It is in helping fill any person’s need, whether it be time, food, teaching or even just listening.  I have learned forgiveness is ultimately to let go of the bad thoughts and feelings towards the people I feel have wronged me.  That one is a work in progress because you can’t just say it and be done—you have to mean it.  Compassion is simply looking at a situation from multiple perspectives and having an understanding of where another person is coming from.  Control is something I always thought I had over myself, but I learned that I almost always allowed everyone else a measure of control over me by reacting to their actions.  Not reacting and taking the time to process a problem before doing anything is real control. 

“You cannot take a person from that violent environment and just put them out on the street and expect them to survive.  That is like releasing a tiger out on the street and expecting him not to attack.  That is insane!”  It does seem a little reckless on our part.  We can do better—for our neighbors and for ourselves.