This week’s blog was geared towards imaginary travel, to explore places or meet people of interest. I could, theoretically, transform those fantasies into reality, free to go wherever I please. This is, of course, not true for millions of other people in this country, not just for lack of funds or curiosity, but for the brutal fact of incarceration. 

The link below reports on research that nearly half of all US adults have an immediate family member incarcerated during some point in their lives, with one in seven reporting that their relatives were in jail for over a year.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46471444

Those behind bars can often not even read about the places they long to go, or about much anything else for that matter. This is where we, with the help of a Brooklyn-based bookstore, can pick up the slack. In the attached link you find a wishlist where you can order a book – they send it to prisons and take care of the shipping cost. https://www.greenlightbookstore.com/wishlist/346

They are partnered with NYC Books Through Bars, a nonprofit collective that sends free books to incarcerated people across the country. Over the past 20 years, they have sent more than 50,000 packages of books to individuals in state and federal prisons. Books Through Bars currently receives and fulfills over 700 book requests each month. We believe that books have the power to transform people and the way they see the world. 

How is that for a Hanukkah (or Christmas) gift idea instead of another pair of socks or rip-you-hair-out brainstorms for those who have everything? 

Photographs today are of elephants in the Oregon Zoo. They, too, live behind bars, but that is where the comparison ends. They are well cared for, have vets and dietitians on hand, enjoy million dollars play areas, and have a community rooting for them. Yes, they did not commit crimes, but they don’t face 10 (!) year prison sentences for stealing warm underwear from a dime store either.

https://sputniknews.com/us/201812061070426759-illinois-man-jailed-10-years-underwear-heist/