Of all the places I’ve gone to, I hated prison and jails the most.  More so than the drug neighborhoods and other assorted crappy places I’ve gone to, including some jobs.  I didn’t like the overall environment, clanging doors, looks of inmates, tight security, and all that.  Like all the crap I put up with in this joyful disappointing existence, I just gritted my teeth and did it, breathing relief thereafter.

But this one is about preparation.

One of the most famous characters in my faith is Joseph.  Technicolor dream coat, dreams, sent to the pit, sold into slavery, false accusations, and being sent to prison unjustly.

But prison is where he needed to be for his destiny.  Like Don Corleone, it takes an act of injustice to launch you into what has been ordained.

I heard somewhere and with good reasoning that the prison he got sent to was for political prisoners.  And that’s how he learned the skills to eventually rule over Egypt.  But I think it’s also more than that – the dangers and challenges of prison life for him ready for the cutthroats, backstabbers, underminers, and other goodies of political life.  Just because he ended up with a high position after his release did not exempt him from these realities.

Most of my career involved some type of political work.  It was brutal and petty.  At some point, I realized that the worst enemies weren’t the criminals out on the street but the ones inside the building.  This has been true also of schools and churches.  Power tends to corrupt and all that.  I want to be done with all that and plant some vegetables but I also see how many of my life experiences got me ready to not only survive these environments but also throw my middle finger at some of these perps as well.

One of the phrases that has resonated in recent years is that nothing is wasted.  It came suddenly to me after an interesting series of events and it rang true without really much thought.  The more I recollected and wrote, I started to see how skills and experienced I picked up at different points played a role later down the road.  My ambassador mentor told me that I’d be surprised to see what I would find useful from a prior life.

And she was correct.

In NYC, not only did I use a ton of my educational and professional skills but something that will sound funny but makes sense if one knew the quality and character of many of the people I was with.

Volunteering at the church nursery.