Sweet release

It has been a long 14 days, but my time has finally come. I am released. My loyal readers, it is good to be back!

Jail was, to be frank, the best thing that could ever happen to me. In the weeks leading up to imprisonment, I was stressed and anxious. I was afraid for the future of Frank's New Blog, as well as my own personal future. I was concerned with numbers and statistics. I had regressed into the mind of a statistician. A percentage chaser. I tied my own personal self worth directly to the results, and the results were bad. I was Icarus, the Wall Street Banker, standing on the roof.

In jail, it was incredibly boring. I spent my time doing two things: thinking and jumjax™. Suffice to say, I did a lot of thinking and a lot of jumping jacks. Admittedly, this was just the right combination for my body and my mind. I sat in the jail cell and followed the cracks on the floor with my eyes. I listened to the silence. I waited. In the corner of my cell, there was a spider. A very small spider, but a spider nonetheless. Here was this spider, living his or her entire life in the dark, greenish glow of fluorescent lighting. This spider that might never know the soft caress of sunlight, the sweet taste of fresh air, or the drumming of the rain. Would I ever know these things, truly?

 It was then that I realized my the road trip of life © had a funny sense of humor. You see, I was that spider. I had been living in the dark, locked away from sunlight. I had been cautiously crunching numbers instead of living life. We don't have very long on this Earth of ours, and I will be damned if I spend another second of it imprisoned, be it of the physical or metaphysical variety. I resolved to break the spider out. I resolved to stand up for the oppressed. And so, before it was time to go, I cupped that spider in my hand and carried him or her with me out into the light of day. (This was actually, hilariously enough, a pretty difficult procedure. I had to awkwardly balance while I pulled off my jail fatigues and redressed in my own clothing, all while holding the spider. But I managed it, and released him or her under a mulberry tree.) I think I was meant to meet that spider, and he or she me. 

I have emerged--as a caterpillar from cocoon, as a mummy from its tomb, as a baby from the womb. 

I am older, 

wiser, 

stronger. 

I am reborn.

-Frank

*embedded Instagram post replaced with image file 2018/12/11*