Sometimes we have to find ways to say things so they'll understand where we're coming from. We've been using this 'game analogy' for the past few months as we teach our re-entry classes, and they seem to get it each and every time.
April 22, 2013
It’s about time you
got out of going to the hole. It’s not as if you don’t know how, right? Last Christmas, Shane bought him a new PS-3 and
gave it to his 12-y.o. son, Noah, for Christmas. Sneaky, huh. Yeah, he thought
so too. Anyway, he also bought Call of Duty, Black Ops II. Noah asked if he
could spend all the time he needed to beat the game. Shane said okay since it
was Christmas vacation. Noah beat the game, 55 levels, in 8 hours.
So then Shane gets
the game and is killed at level 3 repeatedly. Noah laughs at him. See, Shane
knows how not to get killed, but each time he gets to certain points, he wants
to outsmart the game and take the bad guys on up close and personal. He loses
each time. Noah, on the other hand knows the game is programmed to be the same
every time he goes through it. Instead of trying to invent new ways of killing
the bad guys, he does as it is programmed and although he kills them the same
way as he did before, he advances through each level and wins – he beats the
game.
“Surviving Prison to
Parole” is a PS-3 game Randy. It is programmed to allow you to either beat the
game or get beaten at each level. Since it is programmed, it cannot be beaten
by trying to outsmart it. No matter how you try to change it, it stays
programmed to react only one way. You abscond and get immediate sanctions. You
break a rule and get a programmed intervention. It is no different than is Call
of Duty. Moreover, you already know how
to beat each level and win the game; but for some crazy reason, continue trying
to beat it your way. You were smarter than this the last time I knew you up
close and personal.
I bet that if I
could get you out of prison and make you a deal, you would take the deal. Just
playing here, suppose this was real: I offer to assign you as mentor to a kid
who is on parole for his first time. The deal is – you mentor and coach the kid
for one year keeping him from any sanction, never going to TVP (Technical
Violators Program) for the entire year, and I reward you by cutting your flat
date time in half. Would you take it? Could you do it? Of course, you would and
you could. So, why aren’t you helping yourself as much as you would help the
kid?
Yeah, I
know…sometimes I am a cold lick. But you see Randy, I do not think we have much
time left to make amends. And I’ll be damned if I allow you to miss out on
restoring your life with your daughters and living a righteous life by not
saying what needs to be said at the moment you need to hear it.
I mailed your letters
to your girls today. I hope you enjoy
the book enclosed. You are loved.
Mike Willbanks
