all the time in the world
I’ve seen this patient several times now for similar issues. I ask him every time, “what are you reading today?”
He holds a small stack of maybe 25, 2×4 sheets of paper with tiny hand writing on them. Each of them is a remembrance of a book he read, a snapshot of the synopsis, or a messages he gleaned from them.
“How many of those do you have?,” I ask. “Probably thousands,” he replies.
He keeps them rubber banded together. He arrives each time with a different set. If it helps to grasp an image, he’s in his 8th decade of life. He keeps them on him so when he’s just sitting there waiting for something, like his PT visit, then he has something to read. Revisiting the books he’s read over his 80 some years
When he explains what he’s reading, the topics are so varied. They range from the Bible to Russian history and onward. He’s never reading anything new at this point. He just re-reads his paper notes over and over again.
“I’ve read so many books, I don’t need to read anything new. I like to revisit what I’ve learned.”
It takes everything in me to keep from asking him if I can see his collection. I imagine when his time comes, his cell will be found, with thousands upon thousands of these 2×4 sheets of paper –a testimony of his knowledge over decades of incarceration.
It reminds me of the Twilight Zone episode with the librarian that wants nothing more than all the time in the world to read. He arises from the bomb shelter only to break his glasses and with all the time in the world, he’s unable to read without his glasses and there’s no one around to fix them. In this case, one has all the time in the world to read, but you’re incarcerated.
He fascinates me. Not school smart, but literally book smart from all the years of reading.
*just to note, I’ll be leaving out the name of the institution that I work at. It’s a state prison for reference. Images are not from the prison as no devices are allowed in.
Prison PT 
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