I am really enjoying Kitty’s message series on “One Humanity, Many Stories.” It made me think of all the times I received people’s stories. When a person tells me their story, they are sharing who they are, what their life has been and their attitude about their experiences and it helps me remember them. When I hear a lot of stories from one person, I get to see a bigger scope of their lives and really get to know them. I also become another vessel to hold their memories.
I am probably like a lot of people in that I do not go around telling people all about my life, but if someone asks, I spill. I do not see the point of hiding who I am or what I’ve done or how I feel. Some of my Unity friends know I spent a career in law enforcement and as a federal agent, I had to interview the people I arrested. Often, all they wanted was someone to listen to them. I remember asking a life-long postal employee why he suddenly stole mail containing money. He cried, this older man, and said he was embarrassed at what he did. He lost his wife and his children lived far away. He lived alone and had few friends. His job was as a rural carrier and he delivered mail out in the middle of nowhere, farm to farm. He never saw anyone, just put mail in the curbside boxes. He was considered reliable, so he had very little interaction with his boss. Actually, no one paid attention to him at the office, and only did so to note when he left and when he returned. He said his tears were from embarrassment, but I believe they were because he felt so isolated. He was disheveled and unkempt and I felt he must have been depressed for a very long time. Did it excuse his behavior? Probably not, but it sure made me crawl into his life and see the story behind my arrest stat. When I began this investigation, I had only one goal and that was to find out what happened to the missing money and catch the person responsible. I did that, but I also developed empathy and compassion toward him during my time with him. He was allowed to retire immediately, that day, and the prosecutors gave him probation. This happened in the first half of my career, which was good, because I carried this memory with me for the rest of my career. It helped me to remember to ask for their story. There is always a story.
