Monday, January 2, 2012

The Razor Wire Chronicles: Define Crazy

"You have to out crazy them." I heard that from one staff recently and it immediately hurled me back in space and time to my experience at Martin Center, an inpatient adolescent psychiatric treatment unit, that I worked in shortly after I graduated from college. I was sitting at a picnic table across from a guy named Bruce doing what constituted an interview at that facility. Bruce had wild Einstein hair that never had any two hairs pointing in exactly the same direction and he liked to smoke a lot of weed and talk platitudes which made sense to nobody except for him. I had little bit of experience at a rougher facility so I managed to wrangle an interview. I expected to sit in an office and face the usual inquisition from 2-5 earnest management types. Sitting at a picnic table was definitely more my style. At the tender age of 24 I was easily impressed by such seasoned veterans of the social service system. That awe would fast fade but Bruce's rhetoric pulled me in for awhile.

In my latest reincarnation as the mostly self-identified change agent of another social service system, ( a lockup facility this time), such rhetoric seems dated and bizarre. It could be a combination of age (I just turned 50) and weathering. I have been doing this stuff for over 25 years now. This Stuff is doing everything I possibly can to help young people make better lives for themselves. I am no longer interested in out crazying them. Today I am more interested in out wising them. There was a time when I bought into such nonsense. I believed, like Bruce believed that if I acted crazier than the residents they would magically come to some sudden state of awareness and enlightenment. Today those notions seem anachronistic.

It's not that I am not macho and masculine. But somewhere along the way I became a peaceful warrior. I discovered little tricks like speaking softer and softer and softer still. Magically this gets the boys to listen even better. I hear tales of trying to get the boys to follow rules. Rumor has it one veteran staff read them the rules for four hours. Doing learning style and psychological math this means that they were listening for about twelve minutes which leaves three hours and forty eight minutes of absolute wasted time.

Some of these kids are veterans of the system as well. Some cite their long list of program failures like other men brag of trophy bucks and skiing down impossible chutes. They are not impressed easily or by much. They have seen the best and worst the system has to offer (or not offer). They have mastered the art of tuning us out. Somebody droning on for four hours about rules will most likely not capture their imagination.

What captures their imagination is unrelenting kindness and acceptance. They like people who are genuinely interested in them and listen. They like people who have something different to offer.

They have seen crazy too. There is always someone bigger, badder and more intense. To quote Jack Nicholson: "Go sell crazy somewhere else, we're all full up here."

Sunday, January 1, 2012

The Razor Wire Chronicles: Lavender Flavored Sandals

I'm not sure because I have not asked around on this particular issue but I am reasonably certain that I am the only juvenile detention officer or GLC (Group Life Coordinator) who sprays his sandals with lavender water before coming to work. It's not that I believe it will somehow elevate my consciousness or cleanse my aura. It's that after a few days at work my hiking sandals start to stink. I have noticed that I am the only staff that wears hiking sandals and Hawaiian shirts even in the middle of winter. A few people have observed and commented on my apparel but for the most part I am accepted as the token offbeat creative slightly out of sync with the popular culture paradox.

I just came to accept that I make a pretty crappy detention officer. I can't figure out all these keys. I'm at that point in my life where few things make me feel I have to raise my voice. The years have passed too many suns now to keep me mean any longer. I have a tough time taking all these rules seriously and I still suffer from the naive and idealistic stance that if we all tried a little harder,meditated a little more and laughed at ourselves at least once a day things would work out a little better.

I have noticed that most everybody else wears cowboy boots, "business casual" or sturdy tennis shoes. They see my sandals with my pale winter toes poking through and they either shudder or put me in the watch closely category. Maybe they think I'm just trying to be weird or different but the reality is I never had to try to be weird or different. That comes to me just as naturally as breathing.

The reality is that my feet just get really hot quite easily. This may have come from a lifetime of either going barefoot or wearing sandals and mocassins or perhaps it's a condition which only a practitioner of Chinese medicine can cure. When I wear sock and shoes indoors (which seems quite barbaric to me) my feet sweat.  Sandals with closed toes are the best option.


A few months into this ride I can say I have already made changes. Kid in JAIL have yoga mats in their rooms. A few months from now a labyrinth outlined by lavender plants will grace a spot that is now a lawn. We toss swords, do yoga and meditate. "The future's so bright I gotta wear shades."