I got arrested once when I was 16, and even though it wasn’t an egregious offense, the prosecutor or DA wanted to throw the book at me and give me some ridiculous set of punishments. I’ll never forget on the drive home, I’m just sitting there completely dejected. And I remember saying to my mom that it didn’t seem fair. She momentarily broke character and said she agreed with me, that this punishment did not seem to fit the crime and even stated that it was an imperfect system that would inevitably have flaws. “However”, she then said, “this is why you don’t put your life in their hands.”
I still don’t watch wrestling or eat more than 2 scoops of ice cream. But more than anything else, those words have stuck with me to this day. Never forgot them.
