Aristotle talked about how excellence is comprised of doing and thinking excellent things. In other words, excellence is a habit. You are what you spend your time doing. Prison provides an opportunity because you don’t have bills to pay, and you have all of this free time. It’s up to each of us how we spend it. One of the biggest impediments I’ve seen to improvement (I used to do this myself), is to spend huge amounts of time hanging out, telling and listening to stories of debauchery, crime, drug-use, and cheap gratification. Glorifying the “good ole days,” which in this case is glorifying criminal and destructive behavior. You can’t walk five minutes among prisoners without hearing this going on. It’s bad because not only is it a total waste of time, but it keeps you in the criminal mindset. The key is: Be productive. Look forward, not back. And find the value in good things, such as honesty, patience, responsibility, and decency.
Daniel Turner
DOC #767569
