Counting (Some of) My Blessings

     Privilege is a funny thing. Every person reading this has some privilege. The privilege of the Internet. The privilege of time. The privilege of a roof over their heads and regular meals. Some have more than others, but denying it is akin to denying your height or your looks. They are just features you have, so denying them is just silly and pointless. Denying privilege is honestly just an ego boost. There may be differing levels of "getting it out the mud" or being "self made," but everyone who has any privilege has something to be grateful for. A fortuitous relationship (meeting the right person), an unwarranted 2nd chance, a coincidental life event (taking a life-changing course, or hearing perfectly timed advice), and so on and so forth. That being said, I thought it would be a mindful exercise to quantify at least some of my privileges in my adult life (18+). I've seen others post photos or little blurbs of gratitude in these quarantine times, so I thought I'd give it a stab.

1. 4 years of tuition at UCSD ~40k+ (poor people grant - my tuition was covered with grants for all 4 years)
2. Minivan for a couple years/my current RAV4 ~10k
3. Carpooling in Louisiana for 2 years ~2k (how many of y'all knew this? Shoutout my mans Brett Orren)
4. Under-market room & board with my parents for 4 years ~15k
   My sister advised me to stay home & save for as long as I could. Though I planned to move out last year, things took a different turn and I've been living at home 'til now ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

     All told, that's ~67,000+ of benefits I've reaped over the last decade. & for what? I didn't do anything to warrant those benefits besides be born to my parents and have a gracious roommate (actually, roommates - I hitched a ride with everyone in the Teacher Mansion at least a handful of times over the years). So, yeah. I am incredibly fortunate.
     Without meaning to, I've also realized where my generous orientation to social programs comes from. I didn't do anything except to fall into some really lucky circumstances. Why would I deny others the opportunities that I lucked into?
     "But wELfAre QuEEns!1!" Alright, look here, dumbass. It's just a matter of math (and one that I honestly can't find numbers for. So, I am admittedly going out on a limb here). For every shady ass person that defrauds the system, I would be happy if 4+ people were able to leverage the system and experience some upward mobility. If we're being honest, plenty of Viets have made good, honest use of government assistance... along with a significant number who have cheated. I got 5 siblings who are all contributing members of society, and I'm (pretty) sure every single one of us received financial aid at some point or other. If not from the gov, then from living rent-free or low-rent with our parents. So... yeah. I firmly believe in government assistance.
     Didn't mean to rant, but I definitely have a habit of it. Anyways, I promise I'm really grateful :). I hope this inspires you to take a sincere accounting (numerically or not) of your blessings/privilege! If you take the time to really think about it, I'm sure you can come up with a decent list. Thanks for reading - now go write :P.

What Is Faith In the Face of Coronavirus?

     In these wild times, and from various religious perspectives I've seen on social media, I thought I would take the opportunity to reflect on faith. In a pretty timely manner, I also came across an interesting idea which ties in to this topic: the Stockdale Paradox (named after Navy vice admiral James Stockdale, who was a POW in Vietnam for 7 years). Basically, he framed the idea that faith cannot be blind. What's that mean in the face of the Coronavirus?
     Well, the blind faith I've seen from people looks something like this:

• We must put our faith in God so he can deliver us
• The country will reopen in time for Easter, so that we can give glory to God
• God will take care of Coronavirus - we just need to believe
• The Coronavirus will be cured when we've offered up enough prayers (akin to "100,000 comments and Jesus will cure muh cancer!")

      This is in direct contrast with Stockdale. When asked who didn't make it out of Vietnam he said:
     "Oh, that's easy, the optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, 'We're going to be out by Christmas.' And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they'd say, 'We're going to be out by Easter.' And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart^" Again, this dude made it through 7+ YEARS of war imprisonment. I'm not talking about sitting there picking your ass of boredom - dude was tortured, had his leg broken twice, and injured himself in various ways as to not be used as a propaganda tool or give up information. I think it's exceedingly fair to give him a large dose of credit on the level of faith it takes to survive a harrowing ordeal. So what's this have to do with our current predicament?
      Well, do his words ring a bell? Something about the country opening for Easter, with no reasoning provided except that it happens to be a religious holiday? How foolish of people. Instead of this (extremely dumb) take, what might appropriate faith look like if we were to take our lessons from this certified badass?

• We must put our faith in God so he can deliver us 
• let us follow the advice of the medical professionals He created and adhere to social distancing and good hygiene.
• The country will reopen in time for Easter, so that we can give glory to God 
• This definitely isn't happening. We will celebrate Easter when the medical and science experts (that GOD HIMSELF created) give us the okay
• God will take care of Coronavirus - we just need to believe
• "we just need to believe..." IN THE MEDICAL AND SCIENTIFIC PROFESSIONALS THAT GOD MOLDED IN HIS OWN IMAGE
• The Coronavirus will be cured when we've offered up enough prayers (akin to "100,000 comments and Jesus will cure muh cancer!")
• NO YOU DUMBASS, OTHERWISE CANCER/CHILD MOLESTATION/RAPE WOULD ALL BE CURED BY NOW 

     I really tried to maintain a level tone but.... y'know, it is what it is. Faith doesn't mean you get to cross your fingers and hope the big man in the sky will snap his fingers for you when he deems it appropriate. Faith means God gave you the tools to deal with adversity and you need to demand more of yourself.