It’s In the Structure

Fortune for the day – “The only wealth is life.” – Henry David Thoreau

Like many people I know, I recently watched the three part Netflix series Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez. It is a fascinating documentary. There is a lot to discuss about the show, to try to understand how a football player with so much talent, ability, fame and fortune, could so easily free fall into becoming a cold-blooded killer. The documentary touches on child abuse, sexual identity issues, drug abuse, brain damage due to concussions, the entitlements which society gives to our super star athletes, and the list goes on and on. Aaron Hernandez seemed to be caught up in the perfect storm of all of these issues, and probably even more problems and factors, that we can’t even begin to fathom. And of course, what is most sad, is that several families and friends are left to mourn their dear loved ones, for the rest of their lives, due to Aaron’s senseless actions.

There are so many issues to consider in the Killer Inside documentary, but there is one thing that has stuck in my mind, more than all of the other points being made in the show. The jailers who brought Aaron to his tiny jail cell claimed that they never had a prisoner take so quickly and easily to being confined than Aaron did. Here was man who came from living the high life in a 7,000 square foot McMansion, to a tiny, 7-by-10-foot, bare, no frills jail cell and he seemed actually relieved to be constrained. He craved the structure and “ease” of jail life, with no distractions to derail him. This is from an article describing conversations he had with his fiance and his mother, while in jail:

My room is very organized,” Hernandez told Shayanna Jenkins, his fiancée and mother of his daughter, Avielle. “I have everything lined up perfect, have my little trash in there. Everything all folded, I always make a nice perfect pillow.”

He added: “It’s actually cozy. I think I enjoy it too much.”

Hernandez even went on and on about prison food, as shown in a transcript from a different conversation:

“So you get two honey buns, right? And you put a layer of peanut butter in between the two honey buns with the icing facing each other,” he told Jenkins in one phone call.

“For breakfast, I got three pancakes, with two sausages — not bad,” Hernandez stated.

Supposedly Hernandez spoke of taking “bird baths” at his small sink and wrapping his jail cell light with a shirt to give it a warm glow.

“Jail doesn’t bother me,” he told his mother in one phone call. “I’ve been the most relaxed and less stressed in jail than I have out of jail.”

What is it about structure that is so stress relieving? I know that our dogs are completely out of sorts, if we miss our nightly three mile walk. Ask any zoologist and they will talk about the importance of regular, reliable routines to keep animals healthy. We are animals, too. One article I read said this about needed structure in our lives:

“Life structures can cut down on the stress of life by helping us to more easily maintain positive habits.

This is important because habits are what drive many of the activities in our lives, whether we realize it or not.” – Elizabeth Scott, verywellmind

So if we have good structures in place in our lives, which promote healthy habits, with enough room and open-mindedness for some flexibility when things go unexpectedly, a little off track, we are likely to experience less stress, overall. I suppose that the trick is to make sure that our structures are really the right ones to help us create a formula of healthy, regular habits, which in totality, equate to good, healthy lives. Who would think that a documentary about an ex-NFL murderer would make me want to examine my own structures, which I have in place in my own life, a little more closely?

“I thrive in structure. I drown in chaos.”
― Anna Kendrick, Scrappy Little Nobody