Chapter 7 - Gideon’s Apology
Gideon’s criminal case did not become the catastrophe people online expected.
He was charged over the charity theft and his physical handling of Eloen.
The exact disposition reflected the amount, restitution, lack of prior record and his cooperation after the dashcam footage emerged.
He pleaded guilty.
Probation.
Restitution.
Community-service requirements unrelated to the charity he had stolen from.
No dramatic ten-year sentence.
He lost his job.
The store closed eight months later anyway.
That fact complicated his story.
The thing he had been stealing to prevent happened despite him.
Twelve employees found other work.
Some quickly.
Some not.
Gideon had sacrificed his integrity to delay an outcome he could not control.
He requested permission to send Eloen an apology.
I said no at first.
Then asked her therapist.
Then Eloen.
She said:
“Can you read it first?”
“Yes.”
Gideon wrote:
I accused you because I needed someone else to explain money I had taken.
Good.
Then:
I saw you looking at bread and decided that meant you might steal.
Specific.
Then the best part:
I was ashamed of needing money myself, and I made your need look like bad character because I could not face what I had done with mine.
I had not expected that sentence.
He did not ask forgiveness.
He did not ask to meet her.
Eloen listened while I read it.
Then:
“Is he poor now?”
“I don’t know.”
“Does that make him steal?”
“No.”
She nodded.
That was the lesson I wanted protected.
Poverty does not create dishonesty.
Wealth does not certify virtue.
Need is not guilt.
Gideon had confused those ideas because shame needed a target.
I had nearly done something similar from the opposite direction by wanting to say:
My daughter could never need to steal.
As though being my daughter and having my resources made her innocence more believable.
No.
May you like
She was innocent because she did not steal.
That was enough.
