I'm sitting here watching an episode of Jail and there was this scene where the guy gets out of control and starts banging his head against the glass. So the officers had to go into his cell and pretty much seatbelt him into this restraining chair where he can't move. They did this to protect the man from himself.
The officer explained how in most cases the individual, once restrained in the chair, becomes more calm, less of a threat to himself because he (or she, of course) is forced to think about why they got to that point. If they're left to wander around their cell then they'll do whatever they can do to distract themselves from reality. Their emotions run wild and reality disappears. In the chair, however, their emotions are held down, and reality starts to pop through the clouds.
I get it. I have my own kind of jail cell--we all do. Sometimes we need to force ourselves to be still so that we can face reality, no matter how painful it may be, and then deal with it.
The officers unbuckled the man from his restraining chair because they could see his physical demeanor settle. His eyes went soft, his shoulders dropped. He faced reality, and he was sober from it. Once he was free, he stretched out on the bench, his arms behind his head, and he stared at the ceiling imagining the freedom beyond the florescent lights.
That's the only way we will find freedom, if we can only be still enough to catch a glimpse of it first.
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