MY RETIREMENT

It is with great joy and some measure of relief that I announce my retirement from the Sheriff’s office.  I think that the best description I have ever heard of law enforcement is that it’s like having a seat in the front row of life.  Because my work involved crisis it tends to magnify all of the emotion of the moment.  All of the joy and sorrow, the good and the evil, the life and death are played out on a stage that seems bigger than the most exciting blockbuster movie or the grandest musical ever staged. Somehow even our imagination cannot hold a candle to the reality that people live every day.  I’ve tried to keep some distance, to erect some emotional contrivance that would not let it all rub off on me, but of course it did.  Of course it wore me down as surely as the wind and the rain wears away stone.  It’s time for me to move a few rows back.

I’ve learned a few things over the years that I’d like to share.  First and foremost is the intrinsic goodness of people.  Even the most evil killer I’ve ever met just wanted to know what made him do it.  At their core was a good person who just didn’t understand why they were broken. We are all just a mother’s child separated from one another by circumstance and by good choices and bad choices.

The other is that safety and security are just an illusion, a construct, a lie we tell ourselves to get through the day.  We are all just a moment away from crisis, a moment away from death.  I don’t tell you that to make you afraid, I tell you that to make you live.  Find joy in everything you do.  Tell the people that you love, that you love them.  Don’t be afraid to live your life to the fullest because you might get hurt, open yourself to risk because safety isn’t real.... but neither is fear.

So now I’m done.  I’m taking my own advice and changing my life for the better.  It’s exciting isn’t it?