March 24, 2010
Thou Shall Not Break Umbrellas!
By Lee Brower
(continued)
A few years ago I was invited to speak to a group of prisoners—male and female—at the Utah State Prison. These were prisoners who were on their best behavior and were rewarded by being able to attend various lectures and/or workshops dealing with self-improvement. I agreed, thinking that I would come up with something to say that would keep their interest for a full hour. In the late 1970’s, I had been a volunteer counselor at the same prison and knew full well how difficult it was to keep their attention. As I prepared, I prayed for inspiration—for just one thing that might touch just one inmate. Nothing came. Sure I had ideas roaming through my head, but nothing concrete. To add to my nervousness, my father had come to visit me. This was the first visit by my father to my home in over 20 years and of course I invited him to attend.
When we arrived the room was empty. Then, at precisely 10 a.m., from opposite sides of the room, entered approximately 20 men from one side and 20 women from the other side. They took their seats—men on one side, women on the other—separated by a 4-foot aisle in the middle.
I was sweating …
A member of the correctional staff began by delivering a short speech on the high cost of crime and why they shouldn’t break the law because it hurts everyone. It was definitely a “lecture” and I immediately observed why this group of inmates was willing to come. Where was their focus? Not on the speaker. It was like a pod of dolphins… no one was talking. But there was a whole lot of communication going on between the men and the women—eye brows raising, smiles, giggles, frowns, head nods, hand signals, shoulder shrugs, etc. The officer kept right on talking as though everyone was listening. He concluded and introduced me.
I sighed to myself … “Here goes.”
I stood up and looked directly at my audience. Their attention was still directed at communicating with the opposite sex. I waited…for what seemed forever. Finally, the group became focused on why I was standing there saying nothing. I smiled and introduced my father. And then I told them I was there to talk about two things: thoughts … and priorities. I don’t remember exactly what I said, but I do remember the essence.
What is a thought? Where do thoughts come from? Do they come from someone else or do they come from within? If they come from within, then who owns your thoughts? We all agreed thoughts must come from our subconscious. Therefore we are the proprietors of our own thoughts. Science tells us that 88 percent of our brain cells are devoted to the subconscious. If our thoughts emanate from our subconscious then how important is what we keep inventoried in our subconscious. One of the inmates brought up a verse in Proverbs 23:7: “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he …” He said that always bugged him—“ cause I always think with my head.” But now he queried, “Do you think that the word ‘heart’ really means ‘subconscious’?”
If so, then who guards your subconscious mind? Perhaps that 12 percent of your cells allocated to your conscious mind serve as the guard for your subconscious. Does the expression, “Garbage in, garbage out” apply here? I shared a definition from Sydney Banks, a popular Theo philosopher. He defines wisdom as “pure intelligence before the contamination of thought.” And then I asked, “If you had the same thoughts as someone else would you think and act the same as the other person?” If so, then how important is it to control your thoughts and guard your subconscious from garbage. Their response was: “Man, garbage is everywhere … you can’t control your thoughts.”
Knowing we are the owners and protectors of our thoughts, I related a story that occurred when my oldest daughter was in second grade. It was raining and she wanted so badly so use her mom’s new umbrella—one of those little ones that you push a button and it expands way out. She said she would take good care of it and off to school she went. That afternoon, she came home without it. When asked where it was, she answered that she had forgotten it and that she would bring it home tomorrow. Well, this scene repeated itself several times until gradually it was forgotten.
Several weeks later while cleaning her daughter’s room, her mother discovered the umbrella hidden in the back of the closet under some rumpled clothing—broken! That evening when I returned from the office, I learned of this experience and decided it was time for a daddy/daughter talk. I took this bright-eyed innocent 7-year-old to my bedroom. She was smiling. She loved to spend time with her dad. We sat on the bed and I pulled out the Old Testament and told her about the Ten Commandments. We talked specifically about the commandment that says, “Thou shall not bear false witness” and what exactly that means. We discussed how if everyone obeyed this commandment what a great world we would have. But when we disobey this commandment then we never know who to trust and what to do. She agreed.
We then went through all Ten Commandments and then I asked if she saw a commandment there that said, “Though Shall Not Break Umbrellas”? She looked down at the ground for a while and then looked up at me with tears welling and her bottom lip starting to quiver. She knew I knew. That’s when our first discussion about responsibility for one’s actions and not letting the most important things be at the mercy of those things that don’t matter much.
Eyes were focused on the front of the room. Many had tears. Truth is truth and there is something inside all of us that recognized truth if we will let it. After the meeting, I was approached by a guard who had something he wanted to share with me. He presented me, as a gift from all of the inmates, with a pencil rendering of the essence of this message we had shared. As he gave me this drawing I noticed several inmates watching and I knew it was a very heartfelt and sincere gift. This sketch is now framed and displayed in my office as a constant reminder of three things:
- We all have choices and our most important choice is to control what enters our subconscious. It is our responsibility to screen the experiences, movies, music, associations, books, magazines, etc. that impact who we are and will become.
- We own our own thoughts and we can control them—rather than having them control us.
- First things first. Don’t let the things that matter most be at the mercy of those things that matter least.
