“Something Close to Love”

Dear Patricia,

Well, hi, there, Patricia, my so, so very For Always awesomely precious and dearly special soul sisterfriend Christian Quaker woman who you’re For Always so, so very much!!!! WOW, sister, WOW!!!!! YAY, Patricia, YAY!!!!! I’m just so, so very thrilled, overjoyed, and happy that your Welling Up book has arrived and that with this that the WellingUp.net is here!!!!! Wow, I’m just so happy about this!!!! Sister, I just liked and followed the page for this on Facebook and I left my comment there and now I’m going to very joyfully write my very detailed, heartfelt, and thorough thoughts, ideas, and comments here, Patricia, to ABSOLUTELY AWESOME YOU and to your ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC BLOG!!!!!! Sister, I just so, so very much loved, appreciated, and enjoyed the great excerpt which you have posted so far on Facebook, Patricia!!!!! WOW, I just love Rocco Pellegrino and all of the other whole host of characters! I so love all of the baseball references, sisterfriend. Sister, I am such a very avid fan of major league baseball and minor league baseball as well as being a very eager and delightful fan of women’s college and professional softball, college men’s baseball, and all of softball and baseball so the baseball references just went straight to my very heart and spirit!! Sister, I so, so very much love and cherish all of our So, So Very Dearest and Darling God’s children as my very sisters and brothers like with indigent, low, fixed income and no income white persons(and all persons in this very predicament) and with working class white persons(and all other people in these situations). I have For Always resisted the prejudice and bigotry of my parents and the rest of my family as a black woman(I’m estranged from my family) as to how they had disdain for ethnic white persons and would look down on indigent, low, fixed income and no income white persons(and other people in this predicament, too) very often hatefully saying and using the white “t-” word, and as to how my parents and family would be so cruel toward working class white people(and other working class people in these situations). My very heart just went out to Rocco, his dearest wife Marie, and their precious daughter, Donna, and as to how Rocco became ensnared in the criminal underground due to being indigent and not being able to provide for his family. Sisterfriend, I am also a great fan of crime dramas and murder mysteries so I love reading about Rocco’s involvement with the criminal underground. Sister, how heartbreaking that Rocco has his accident in prison becoming physically disabled and that he could no longer showcase this great talent as an amateur baseball player. Sister, I just cannot wait to read the rest of this very fine and excellent book. Sisterfriend, I was only able to access WellingUp.net by clicking on the marvelous link in this blog post article and by typing in WellingUp.net in the Search Engine on Facebook. When I typed in WellingUp.net in the address bar on my browser it wouldn’t access your great WellingUp.net for some reason and came up as an error. My so, so very dearest and darling friend, how can I get access to all of your spectacular book here? Will you be over time posting all of the excerpts for your very splendid and powerful Welling Up? Is there a cost for this very superbly super book-I can save my money so that I can buy all of this very magnificent book? Please at your leisure when you are able let me know-I just cannot wait and am bursting with such very delightful and eager anticipation to read all of this very super Welling Up, my friend!!!!! WOW!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!! YAY for YOU, Patricia!!!!! YAY for your very awesome Welling Up, Patricia!!!!!! YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!!!!

Patricia, the title of your very outstanding and engaging blog post article here is perfect, just absolutely perfect perfectly adding to and complementing the great themes and topics of your very empowering blog post article here. The picture accompanying this very fine and excellent blog post article here is very deeply profound and poignant being the perfect choice for a picture to feature and include with this very powerful blog post article. Sisterfriend, I thank-YOU for how you have as usual as always featured and included some very marvelous links with your very succinct and cogent blog post article here making very many salient points, Patricia. Sister, the very right on and on point article by Byron Johnson speaks to very many relevant issues speaking to such very truth to power just telling it like it is, Patricia. His very deep article brings to my memory when I was at orientation for my first college Summer 1980 at The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor when I had to take a test to determine where I would place for the required Freshman English class to see if I would place out of that requirement, place into that class, or have to take a remedial course. Each of us as future students had to write an essay. I remember so, so very well as a very idealistic eighteen-years-old young woman back then that my composition was on how I felt the criminals in prison could definitely be rehabilitated and that they could for certain change for the better. I ended up placing into the Freshman English class. Sister, I didn’t graduate from Michigan having withdrawn from Michigan in my junior year in March 1983. I ended up going back to school this time at The University of Iowa in my beloved Iowa City, Iowa at the age of 40 in the Fall Semester 2002 and then having graduated as a Women’s Studies Major receiving my Sexuality Studies Certificate at the age of 48 in May of 2010. Sister, Byron Johnson made very many vitally urgent and important points in his great article here. He is so right-it is not enough to only have some sort of religious conversion and spiritual awakening for prisoners once they leave prison to avoid recidivism. It is a great start for sure to have a religious conversion and spiritual awakening but all of this must have the very firm foundation for the prisoners of receiving practical and concrete help with gaining the life skills to handle their new found freedom, getting the mental health care over time as their very learning, healing, and growth would realistically only occur over time, and gaining practical and workable employment skills and very much needed access to housing and employment which is easier said than done with the prejudice against ex-convicts. Sister, also very many of the former prisoners may need help with their recovery issues like with recovering from alcoholism and other addictions and must receive needed help from 12-Step Programs of from other resources. Also, the prisoners who had religious conversions and spiritual awakenings must continue to have access and outreach from folks connected to these resources once the prisoners are free and out of prison. Sister, I can relate to the prisoners who had issues with alcoholism and other addictions even though I have never ever been in prison or jail and I don’t have a record. I am a recovering alcoholic and addict in Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics who will have One Day At A Time 27 years being clean and sober on August 5, 2017 being clean and sober since Sunday, August 5, 1990. Wow, I am just so, so very grateful for this and so, so very incredibly blessed, sister!!!!!! Sister, I know what the fine writer Byron Johnson means about change being a very gradual process for prisoners. Very often I faced, endured, and experienced pressure from some people even from therapists and psychiatrists who expected me to be completely changed overnight and to learn, heal, and grow immediately with all of this being a very gradual process for me as it was for the prisoners in this very endearing article here. Before I became finally clean and sober on Sunday, August 5, 1990 prior to that time I had been trying for 3 1/2 years to become clean and sober with relapsing often and some people, therapists, and psychiatrists would become very impatient with me giving up on me!!!!! Byron Johnson is just full of such astute and acute sagacity in realizing, recognizing, and acknowledging that the processes of recoveries, learning, healing, and growing only take effect over a gradual amount of time. Sister, you have made such powerful and great choices to accompany featuring and including in your very empowering and inspirational blog post article here!!!!! WOW, you have done such an all-star job with this very insightful blog post article here, sisterfriend!!!!! Sister, I love that you write to your prison pen pals!!!!! This reminds me of how it says in Scripture that our Jesus calls upon us to visit those in prison, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, and all of the sheer and glorious beauty of these sweet verses in Scripture, sister and friend of mine, Patricia!!!!!!

Sister I feel even better and brighter with such even more great cheer after very joyfully reading your very so full of such wisdom blog post article here and with very joyously responding with my very heartfelt, detailed, and thorough thoughts, ideas, and comments!!!!! Sisterfriend, now I’m even more re-energized, renewed, rejuvenated, and reinvigorated from this very emboldening and encouraging blog post article here!!!!!!!! Patricia, I thank Jesus continually for YOU and for YOUR very presence in my life, sister!!!!! You help me so, so very much with my very walk with Jesus, my so, so very precious soul sisterfriend Christian Quaker woman!!!!!! YAY for YOU, Patricia!!!!! YAY for our very sisterhood and friendship, Patricia!!!!! WOW!!!!! YAY!!!!! Please have such a superbly super Saturday, a wondrously wonderful rest of your weekend, and may all of your very days be so, so very especially blessed, Patricia!!!!! YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!!!! I thank-YOU so, so very much, friend of mine, Patricia!!!!! Spirit so, so very much loves and cherishes YOU, Patricia, and so do I!!!!!!! 🙂 <3

Very Warmly and Sincerely For Always, my so, so very For Always awesomely special and dearly precious soul sisterfriend Christian Quaker white woman who you're For Always so, so very much, Patricia, with My and Spirit's Peace and Love For You For Always, friend of mine, and with Such Blessings and Such Very Even More Blessings For You For Always, sister of mine,

Yours For Always soul sisterfriend Christian black woman and For Always in the very great spirit of unity and solidarity, Sherry Gordon in Iowa City, Iowa