the thrill

When I worked as a Delinquincy Case Manager/Juvenile Probation Officer for the State of Florida in Deland, I had the good fortune to often find myself in the courtroom of Judge Joe Will. Every once in a while Joe’s patience with a young person standing/slouching before him would get to a point, and the judge would lean slightly forward and say, clearly, — “If I see you here before me again, you and I are going to have a ‘Come to Jesus’ meeting.” Read – Judge Will don’t play.

This morning I had one of those meetings with myself, beginning on the cushion in meditation and carrying into my Morning Pages. Gentle, kind, clear, and strongly encouraging. Immediately changing the way moving forward.

Once I came into Judge Will’s court and, presenting ‘probation recommendations’ for a kid who’d plead guilty to shooting out a street lamp with a BB gun, offered as one of his penances a 2000-word essay on B.B. King. Judge Will looked at me, for a while, and said words to this effect – “You’ve got issues.”

Who knew? Right?