Choices

When in a person’s life do greed and /or desperation turn them into a criminal? I received some very disturbing news last weekend about a person I knew in my past. Not just an acquaintance or a short lived relationship but someone I once called family. We were family and we were close. I was at his wedding, I was at the birth of his firstborn, and we graduated college together. When I had to leave the family it was him that I was going to miss the most because we were close and I knew we both had to choose. No, we were not a couple; he was my brother in law and very good friend…close to a best friend. It has been almost seven years since I have seen him and almost a year since I talked to him for the first time in six years. It was nice to catch up with he and his family and we fell into the same banter that I had come so accustomed to so many years before.

I was devastated when I found out the news that he had become someone that will now be known as a criminal, a cheat, a felon…allegedly. The choices that he made…allegedly 80 times have not only affected those with losses but will also affect his family, both immediate and extended. 80…80 times he made a choice…allegedly that will and have impacted so many people in a negative way and if convicted he will go to prison. I just want to throw up. Let’s just say he will not do well in prison…he is a good looking man and I’m not saying that jokingly. It really won’t be good.

Again…what drives a person that is successful, honest and upstanding to make such a life changing horrible decision? It just makes me sad.