Incarcerated Individuals learn a lot about chains. Every time they are moved from one facility to another their wrists are locked together and linked to a chain belt. Their ankles too are locked together in chains and linked to that same chain belt. Movement is so restricted the only way one can move is to waddle. It’s called the prisoner’s shuffle. (Hardly a new dance.) I always got the sense that most times the chains are totally unnecessary, but from law enforcement perspective the chains serve two purposes — A not so subtle reminder of who is in control and the second is to shame the person locked up. The chains can also become very dangerous because if you are being transported by plane or van the individual is also chained to the means of transportation — a seat belt made of steel that doesn’t unlock in case of an accident.
I read this morning about a new kind of chains, and what I read became the subject of my meditation. Warren Buffet said, “Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.” It caused me to think what “chains of habit” are beginning to restrict my movement, my growth, and my freedom. I hope you will ask yourself the same question. Are there habits that allow someone else or some other thing be in control of your life? Are there habits that have become a source of shame in your life?
There are habits that will lead one to the steel chains of incarceration, but I think there are worse habits — those that separate us from friends, family, and the person God intends us to be. Yes, there can be good habits to have, but I don’t think those are the ones Mr. Buffet is talking about.
If you are like me this morning, give some thought to freeing yourself of those habits that will ultimately become “too heavy to be broken” and “a seat belt that can’t be unclicked.”
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About the author
Webb Hubbell is the former Associate Attorney General of The United States. His novels, When Men Betray, Ginger Snaps, A Game of Inches, The Eighteenth Green, and The East End are published by Beaufort Books and are available online or at your local bookstore. When Men Betray won one of the IndieFab awards for best novel in 2014. Ginger Snaps and The Eighteenth Green won the IPPY Awards Gold Medal for best suspense/thriller. His latest, “Light of Day” will be on the bookstands soon.
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