Inside Nan: Volunteer Tuesday

This is the prison in St. Cloud, Minnesota. It is the only maximum security prison that I ever visited. The young man I visited there for the first time three years ago has recently been transferred here to Rush City Correctional Facility. I'm not on the Visitor List right now for my friend. It is a limited list and it is full now with family and young friends so I am content to write to him. He is the same age almost exactly of one of my sons. The college junior who turns 21 in a few weeks. My friend has been in prison since he was 17 when he and a buddy murdered the buddy's mom and dad. He is serving a life sentence for first degree, premeditated murder. He is the reason I have a presence on Facebook. He is the reason for a lot of the things I do and for many of the things I think about. Today I spent time with Travis, my Tuesday reading buddy. We read about the death of Bartholomew Badger and Dominic's thoughts as he leaned on the shovel after digging the grave. "The moment he stopped being busy, he felt his heart quake. He had to cry. Life was suddenly too sad. And yet it was beautiful. The beauty was dimmed when the sadness welled up. And the beauty would be there again when the sadness went. So the beauty and the sadness belonged together somehow, though they were not the same at all..."