8/5/21 “Tolerance”

The room we are staying in is approximately 2000sq ft. with individual spaces where our beds and lockers are. We have a window and desk as well. Its actually pretty nice. The bathrooms have individual stalls and showers, the hot water and shower pressure is amazing. Because we are in quarantine they bring us breakfast, lunch and dinner. Breakfast is at 6am lunch at 11am and dinner at 4:30. Lights automatically come on at 5:30am and go off at 10pm. There are 12 of us in quarantine right now. Every time they add a new person it restarts our 2 weeks. We don’t know if this is the last person or not, I can tell you I would really like to get some natural air and sunlight.

As the guys are getting more comfortable and starting to relax they are doing more and becoming more engaging with each other. You hear guys get into deep conversations about religion and politics oftentimes getting loud. The tv has taken on more importance with the guys, piling chairs around it till late at night. It can stay on all night with guys watching till at least midnight. Only problem with this is my bed and room is right next to the only TV. Some of the younger guys are not as clean and don’t follow the same etiquette as the rest of us. These things have made it difficult to sleep sometimes and hard to read books. The last few days I have debated about how to handle it. I think back to what my GPS stands for and realize that every decision I make should get me closer to my goals of getting back to my wife and kids. Late last night I was really struggling to read. A couple of the chairs were actually touching my bed so anytime they would move I could feel it and it would distract me from reading. Right about that time I read a section in this book I’m reading that really helped me. One sentence kind of summed up the section and it read “Only tolerance will provide social cohesion between all groups”. It talked about other important virtues but this was the only virtue that truly provided cohesion between all. When it talks about “groups” that’s exactly what’s in here, people from all walks of life. I thought to myself that the timing was perfect. I’m going to keep working towards my goals, I am now armed with an additional tool to get me there. I really look forward to this journey I am on.

Casey