Dick's Blog

Check out the new “In The News” section of my web site. It contains a magazine feature article on my prison ministry. This is the prologue to this article published November 2013.

Dick Sederquist is dedicated to the goal of reducing mass incarceration and recidivism in our prisons. Toward that goal, Dick created and conducts an eight-session workshop motivational program called “Life Change Discussion Group” for inmates in a Connecticut medium security prison. His program has affected the lives of over 120 inmates over the last four years. The objective of this program is to improve communication skills and develop life coping strategies. Dick’s volunteerism was recognized in an article that appeared in the November issue of Inside Middletown. This article is being posted with permission of hibu community magazines.

Dick sees two avenues to changing the present state focus of funding prisons and imprisonment to investing in programs that will ensure successful inmate reentry into our communities. This concept of change in focus is popularly called “Justice Reinvestment”. First, as a concerned citizen, is his commitment to volunteering his talents to serve and show his moral support for those individuals presently in prison. Somebody on the outside truly cares about these individuals. Second, is his advocacy of focusing state and community activities to invest in offender counseling, rehabilitation and support systems including affordable housing and access to education and jobs to ensure success in community reentry.

This is a pitch for citizen involvement both inside our prisons as volunteers and on the outside to support programs providing meaningful encouragement and employment to those reentering society. Successful reentry means returning an individual as an active citizen, spouse and parent and to the rolls of employed taxpayers, a win-win for these individuals and their communities.

Now featured on my web site is a 24-minute lively video interview with me talking about life, my

writing passion, two memoirs, and volunteer motivational program in a medium security prison in

Connecticut. There’s a short bio, how I was motivated to write my memoirs, how hiking with

family and friends helped save me from depression, my legacy of helping others through my

writing and prison program, and a select readings from my memoirs. If you like my “message of

hope” blog of informational and motivational short stories and essays, you will enjoy my memoirs.

When I autograph my books, I write, “Hope you enjoy this hike through life.” Here’s hoping you

enjoy this video interview and share my message with your friends.

Dick Sederquist

October 12, 2013

My regular volunteer discussion class at prison was cancelled this week due to a lock down for facility repairs. The general topic of this fourth session of my “Life Change Discussion Group” workshop was to be “Take a Walk” an exercise in recalling good things from the past, flashbacks like familiar pictures falling out of an overstuffed photo album, creating hope in the form of images you remember or would like to have in the future. I am sure the mood would have been very somber in the wake of the tragedy in Boston. My friends inside the razor wire are patriotic and very protective of children. They feel very strongly about the perpetrators of crimes against country and humanity. They feel grief as much as anybody. It is especially difficult not being able to share it personally with family or the families they have lost. This week we are all at a loss for words.

Welcome to my web site. I hope my stories for the week will tweak your interest. My subjects and writing style are much like the stories and essays in my two memoirs. Look at the table of contents for both books and see what I write about. I have something for everyone. I’d love to hear your critiques, responses, suggestions and interests. I’m at the time and place in my life where my focus is on giving back and helping others. As a volunteer motivational speaker for the Connecticut Department of Correction, I conduct an ongoing discussion program for inmates in a medium security prison on improving communication skills and developing life coping strategies. Having suffered major depression and loss of hope in my life, I can relate to those who are at their lowest point and have lost their hope. Although a few of my stories have hiking themes, these are not my principal focus. Hiking is a metaphor of how I go through life, exploring and meeting challenges. Being a hiker does give me a unique perspective in appreciating the good things in people and the beauty around us in the world.

Of all places, I was sitting on the pot. The phone rang. I didn’t have my glasses on, so I couldn’t see the number on the caller ID. Oh well! I picked up. Like SETI, the “Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence”, you never know what signal may come in from outer space. It was Darlene, who I don’t know from Adam. It was a wrong number, but the right message, from a very lonely person. Call it providence. I was a little blue, my back has been giving me fits, but this made my day. As a writer, I have been suffering from a little writer’s block, with good and bad ideas fleeting thorough my head, looking for an opening. Hello Darlene! What a great conversation. You turned me on. Here is my response:

Darlene said she was very lonely, had lost her husband about a year and a half ago. She really missed him, and was wondering about the purpose of her life. She had recently moved from Connecticut to Florida to the Villages. I’ve been there, 100,000 people and growing.

“Darlene! How in the world did you come up with my area code?” She said she kept the old one from Connecticut on her cell phone. Midway though our conversation, the connection broke. I’m talking into mid-air

Ring-Ring, she’s back. Hi Darlene! I’m getting her life story. The funny thing is I’m really enjoying this conversation. I tell her about my prison program and my web site. Buy my book! She doesn’t have a computer, but she goes to the library, which has one. She tells me about a relative, age 45, who has had his problems with the law. She is looking for a purpose in life. She is 68 years old and having trouble with her equilibrium. What do you share with strangers? I feel like her friend. I tell her, there is nothing better to do in life, to find purpose, than helping others, like I do in my prison ministry. She tells me there is an opportunity to help others though a local telephone help line. She sounds optimistic that she can help. The conversation ends. I hope I made her day. She certainly has made mine.

This is like a gift out of the blue. We’re all looking for instant gratification. We have a medical test result due next week. We can’t wait to get this behind us. We wish it was next week, already. If I close my eyes and make it next week, I will miss a whole week of my life. So, we have to be patient and not wish our lives away. Darlene wants it to be better. She’s impatient, maybe at wits end. She makes a wrong number phone call, and someone tells her that there are people out there that care about her. They tell her that there is something to do about her loneliness, like get involved. There are friends there in the Villages. I, who get down in the dumps myself, find myself giving advice which I never heed. Listen to your message and believe it for yourself. Darlene, you are helping me see the light as well. She has my number. She may call back. She’s already called back once. Any time, Darlene, I’m here for you. Her number is probably on my caller ID list. I’ll resist the temptation. She sought me out, even though she didn’t know what she would get. She got a little comfort and advice. I got more than I ever expected from a wrong number. The only thing is, if I’m going to be running a help line, I better change my office location.