Boron - Chapter 25

# Boron - Chapter 25

The Boron Letters - Chapter 25

Friday, 7:14 PM

July 7, 1984

Dear Bond,

Tonight I am going to be writing about something I didn't
think I was going to be writing about.

I just had a minor confrontation in the chow hall with a guy
I've had a little trouble with before. He was giving out
cups of ice and when I insisted on two cups he said 'no' and
we verbally got into it. At one point, he suggested that if
I didn't like his refusal to give me more ice, we could go
fight behind one of the dorms.

I glared at him and walked away. We were starting to attract
attention and there were (always are) guards in the mess
hall.

Really, this is no big deal except in a way, it is. This guy
is not very much like the room mate I had some trouble with.
This guy is young, tattooed and stupid. He is a loser and I
know from previous conversations with him that he is pretty
much lost when he is on the street.

He is always messing up, he smokes dope and he is in the
Lieutenant's office often for disciplinary action.

I would probably kick the living $#!+ out of this guy. You
never know for sure, I could be wrong but he is not a big,
bad type. Mostly, he is just plain stupid.

But what may be instructive in all this is why it happened
and what I hope to do about it so I, hopefully, don't have
to deal with it again.

First of all, let me explain that both the incident with my
roommate and this incident happened when I was "off". As a
matter of fact, I am off right now and I have been off for
more than a week. When I am off, when anybody is off,
this is communicated!

Right now, also, (or in conjunction with) being off, I am
also quite vulnerable. I have fasted two days this week, I
am missing L and I have been, in general, feeling sad.

No big deal. Except when you are in prison. When you are in
prison, even a very easy one like this one, your "Karma", I
believe, is extra important! It's important on the street
too, but it is especially important here. This is a bad
place to be weak, even a little and even momentarily.