Shackles and surgery...

As I said yesterday, I like to learn form those I see, so this is another piece (likely the final one) from an observation at my surgery center.

We had to arrive for my surgery at 6:00 AM - way too early, but “it is what it is” (I said that for my friend Matt). There were several people waiting, at the door, as we arrived, but the first person we saw, was a boy in his late teens in hand and feet shackles with an armed guard walking beside him. The boy was limping and the officer seemed intense on his role. I looked at my wife and we both said “only us.”  We seem to always have strange things occur in situations in life, so we just smiled and hoped the boy wasn’t too dangerous - the shackles, guard, sagging jeans and limp would likely hold him back.

Several failure questions, about his life, came to mind immediately. What did he do wrong? How did he get hurt? Where are his parents (only his grandmother was with him)? What’s his next step in life? How will this failure hold him back? Will he be shackled when he has surgery and when it’s over? What kind of surgery was he about to have?  I usually have lots of questions, as you can see.

I had thoughts from both sides of the fence on his boy. Part of me felt badly for him, because often when you see a young man in this situation, they keep running down this path for quite some time and build up more failures and hurts. I wondered if he was caught and repentant and was on the road to recovery in his life - I hope so. I also thought about his failures. Some failures, in life, can bring tough consequences and they last a lifetime and really don’t ever fully let go, like his shackles. These are hard to overcome and he will probably hurt the rest of his life, because of the failure he made. It’s sad, but he can still make something of himself, if he chooses.

Lessons Learned: Be careful to chose wisely, so you aren’t bound with shackles for your whole life. Even small shackles can hurt for a long time.

Thoughts: What shackles have you had to overcome in your life?