Disappointment and Stress - A Leaf From My Life

Dear Readers,

This post is about what's going on in my life.  You've read my muckraking and articles and stories.

One reader told me to post on what's happening with me personally because he thought it'd be interesting for others to read.

For those of you who don't know me, I'm known in my city as "The Boxing Lawyer."  The name just stuck after I became a lawyer, and one of the kid boxers at my gym said, "So you're a boxing lawyer now?"

And I said, "I guess I am."

Since we all got rid of that evil Council Woman Marlen Garcia, my blogs changed a bit.  (The most recent chapter of the blog talks about this.)  The drama quieted down.  But it's revving up again.  Don't worry; I got a lot of stuff to write on.

But my reader is right, a lot of you know nothing really about my life, my cases, and everything in between.

Did you know that at home we have three chickens: one Chinese one and two American chickens?  My mother and I love them because we could give the eggs away, and people always seem grateful for fresh eggs - which taste way, way better than the store bought ones.  The yolks taste like butter.  One famous chef said that the pasta in America can't taste like the pasta in Italy because the eggs are different.

Well, getting back to this post, let's focus on the boxing part of my life.  Boxing isn't only about training, discipline, and boxing.  It's about the community you're in.

And some days, I can't stand working with the kids.  Yeah.  You read that right.  It's highly frustrating to work with the broken.  I remember when Joshua returned to his drug addiction and told us all "F(*&)) you!"  It broke my heart, and Julian and I had to let him go.  He was beyond us.

I guess I'm losing another kid.  We'll call him - Jason.  Jason wanted a better life; so, I worked with him in getting his SAT scores up.  And he did it.

But like Joshua, he got into alcoholism and who knows what else. 

We were supposed to talk about what colleges he wanted to apply for today.  His mother told me, "Jason didn't come home last night."

Go figure, I thought.  He's been doing this more and more.

We were supposed to go for a run today in the mountains, then find the Newsweek at the library to see what colleges were in his realm of possibilities.

Yesterday, the mother scolded me for not helping her son with college applications.

This time, I told her, "Well, don't blame me for him not wanting to go to college?  This has been happening since December."

She said, "Oh my God."

"Good bye."

Well, I still went for my run.  It was around a seven mile one.

After it, I had lunch with Julian, the head boxing coach.  We ate Cuban food.  I ordered paella, which reminded me of the paella I ate in Barcelona in the fall of 2012.  The yellow rice was fragrant with squid, chicken, and mussels. 

I told him the story of what was happening with Jason.

I said, "He's going to Hell.  And I don't mean in the next lifetime, I mean in this one."  Milton, in Paradise Lost gives the first account of Hell being a psychological condition in your soul rather than an afterlife destination in literature.

Julian - being a typical guy - tried to give solutions.

I said, "Julian, it's not time to talk about solutions.  We'll talk about it on Monday.  Right now, I'm just telling you, so you know."

"Ok."

"I don't want to spend any time today thinking about this.  I gotta lot of other things to do."

"I get it."

I just didn't want to think about it.  I have so many problems on my mind - like how to get the corrupt Parks and Recs Director Manny Carrillo fired and all my legal cases.  The last thing I wanted to do was invest more time in a sinking pit.

I tried some of Julian's Cuban pulled pork with rice and beans.  It tasted salty and good and fatty and hearty.

I called one of my mentors and told him about Jason.  He didn't sound too excited.  He knew it was bad news that was coming his way.

He said, "Paul Cook - you're going to have to learn to get over being upset with the kids."

"Some days, I don't really want to work with these kids."

 "I've heard you say that before."

"Well - I don't."

"Do you have much of a choice?"

"It's like playing the game show where they let you pick a door.  But when you open it - it's a dud prize.  I keep getting the duds."

To that, he didn't have much to say.

You know what I observe.  People saying they want to change.  But when confronted with what that really means - I see people don't change.  It's really sad too when it's our own youth.