the gift

One of my students is a Navaho sand painter. He did painting demonstrations in a museum and has received commissions to do these paintings for people around the world. He has told us that these paintings represent a part of Navaho culture and language that he is trying to preserve and pass down.

This man has leukemia cancer, and his days are numbered.

I brought him a little sand painting kit from Wall Mart so he could demonstrate for the class. The guys were so moved, and I believe could sit and watch him paint and listen to him share about his tradition for hours and hours. That day he said "I only have months to live and I have a gift to give, I need to give this gift to you, and I will make all of you paintings." Now he spends all his class time at a little table paiting with sand.

His presence and his gift bless us.

stereo types

Yesterday I spent a couple hours in the Pod where 90 guys live. They were in lock down
so I took the time to interview some of my new students. This interview process seems to be helpful in and of itself, and makes a big difference once we get into the class room. People feel seen and heard, and there is a sense of calm and connection for the start.

The guys enjoy telling their stories. Most say prison is better than jail because its more grown up, you can work and go to school, and you have some clarity about what's going on. You have been sentenced. Life has some shape, direction, purpose.
In jail there is very little progaming, and there is the long long wait for the legal process; a great deal of uncertainty and anxiety.

Most of the guys I talked to are mostly concerned with getting training to find work that pays a reasonable rate.


I did take one class of 18 to the class room. We did some breathing excercises to reduce stress. They liked this a lot and want more.

And we did a fun activity on diversity: Putting the factors that define who we are on the board: age, race, gender, education, legal status, health, education etc.

Then breaking up into groups and answering two questions:

Just because I'm______, don't assume___________about me.

And What I do want you to know about me is _____________.

One native guy who's nickname is "suspect" said " just because I'm native don't assume I'm a nice guy. and I am a nice guy."

When we were dividing the group up by race I asked him to go sit with the other native guys. He goes " First you steal my land , then you tell me where to sit?" We had a good laugh.

There was a lot of laughter in this class. Once we named the factors that we use to stereo type and could talk about this, there was a sense of relief and fun.