Turning Ten

The blog quietly turned ten last month. I was compelled to start writing ten years ago because of the amazing stories surrounding the birth of my first child. Humans are known to birth frequently - more than two babies are born on Planet Earth every second. But when it happens to you, you sit up and notice :-)

Vivian also turned ten this month, and a lot less quietly. On her birthday we went to Fonda San Miguel for an early dinner and then back home for cake with friends and Uncle Alu and Aunt Michelle.

Then, more than a week later, she had a small party at home. Just close friends and 80's fashion and some karaoke. Instead of cake we had a pile of cookies with a single candle on top. When the kids weren't singing, the moms did. Even Evan (as Marty McFly in a plaid shirt and puffy jacket vest) and cousin Ava belted out a very serious rendition of a duet.

By the time the last of over sixty kids and a few dozen parents had left it was past 11pm. Jo and I surveyed the house and the yard and we felt like we had just witnessed a rager at a frat house. But I'm getting ahead of myself - that is at least a full seven years away.

Hunger

Tomorrow, Magellan students will package ten thousand bags of food for delivery to places in the world where people are starving. Earlier this week we cooked a bag from last year's event - a mixture of rice, soy, lentil, dehydrated carrots, and a vitamin/flavor pack. We had pork tenderloin in Goan coconut curry to go with it, otherwise it would have been pretty basic.

For tomorrow's event I made some slides to add context to the event (probably for 2nd graders upwards). Here they are. Mostly pretty disheartening.

The Death of Privilege

If you are like me, in the last two months you've have heard at least one fairly well-off usually white person rail about white privilege about once a day.

Privilege matters. Here's an interesting story by Toby Morris from Auckland that shows how two different lives ended up because of different privileges (if you can't see it, click here: http://deadstate.org/youll-never-see-privilege-the-same-way-again-after-looking-at-this-comic/)

Besides changing Richard's ignorant attitude once he reached the pinnacle of success what should the arc of his life or Paula's have looked like to not make the story end this way? Could Richard have helped Paula? Could society (we) somehow boost Paula's privileges or diminish Richard's?

I have a dirty secret. I try to triple-coat Vivian and Evan in privileges every waking second of every day. Organic local food from Whole Foods to stave off the early onset of strange modern maladies. Private education to bypass the whims of the Texas State Board of Education. A Land Rover so their drive to and from said private school is safer. Spanish language education to help make them globally more marketable. Trips to Sweden and Tahiti to teach them about the world. Tutoring to beat dyslexia. Taekwondo to build self confidence. Dinner table discussions about Einstein. Limited screen time to give their nascent creativity a chance. Lots of Harry Potter, god knows why. In the coming years I'll try to protect them from drugs and teenage pregnancy and naked snap chat photos and push and shove them towards a meaningful higher education and perhaps even nice mates.

People richer in resources and/or more neurotic or dedicated in the pursuit of privilege than me laugh at my feeble efforts as they go about bestowing yacht sized privileges on their offspring. And others with fewer resources/hangups smile and shake their heads. And prepare to complain about privilege later.

As long as everyone in the world is not literally exactly equal, individuals (and groups) have privileges due to the very nature of being unequal. That sucks big time. Even worse - they/we put in systems to maintain structural differences in privileges. Meta privileges. Everything that separates your child from the most underprivileged wretched disease/war/poverty/uncertainty/crime filled child's life in the world is due to individual, structural or generational privileges. How much of this can be legislated away? Or do we crave privilege while we very hypocritically complain about it. 

The End

The end is near. Meanwhile, the sunsets are spectacular.

We liberals in America have our panties tied in knots and nobody else really gives a shit. But as an atheist in a world of believers I witness that belief (in whatever) is way stronger than just the facts Ma'm. Welcome to my world. Alternative facts are how the world has always rolled.