On really thinking deeply about this question, even though I still have a little over 2 years left of graduate school, I’m coming to the end of my education career. Looking at the timescale from Pre-K through high school and through college, these next couple years are the final stretch. Then I’m done. I hold this with love and compassion because it has taught me a great deal of wisdom and insight, yet I am also ready to let it go. The constant schoolwork and bustling to get more stuff done all the time will be over at last, and I can focus on my career, God-willing.

I notice I tend to be more optimistic when things are going well. It’s then that I look retrospectively on the harder times and feel grateful for them, but when I’m not in a good place, I tend to lose that sense of optimism. Maybe a new challenge for me will be to make an effort to see the good in whatever situation comes my way. That’s one thing I appreciate about the apostle Paul. The dude’s incarcerated and he’s like, “The gospel is spreading faster because I’m in prison, so WHAT ROME?! Come at me, bro!”

1. The reason the apostle Paul was upset about the Corinthian congregation’s practice of the Eucharist probably has something to do with the hyper-competitive nature of the Greco-Roman world and their use of meals to distinguish the rich from the poor. This was slipping into eucharistic meals, so that some people were eating tons of food, while the poor would barely get anything. Paul wanted to confront this and remind the Corinthians that they are all one in the Messiah.
2. Banana trees are technically not trees because they are not hard like an actual tree would be.
3. Simchat Torah is the annual festival in Judaism that celebrates the new year of a cycle Torah readings, often celebrated by unrolling a giant Torah scroll across a long distance.
4. We need to do a better job of making efforts to reconcile with those we have been hurt by and those we have hurt.
5. The coca leaf is used in coca cola but is stripped of the contents that contain cocaine (although it wasn’t initially; it was used as a medicine containing cocaine before it was made into a soda!).
6. If you’re a pastor, avoid referring people to outside mental health resources unless you’re certain that the issues the person is bringing to you are beyond your scope of care.
7. There have been some death penalty cases in which prosecutors, judges, and police have deliberately conspired to bury evidence of a convicted person’s innocence even while they are on death row.
8. While other apostles were to receive support from their assemblies, Paul refused to do so to avoid becoming a client-patron to the Corinthians who would boast about their patronage to claim higher status than others.
9. While some people say, “Use your privilege to support those who are less privileged,” this can actually be problematic because it smacks of the idea of the “White Man’s Burden,” which says that white men need to stoop down to help the people who are below them. Such attitudes can be unintentionally paternalistic and condescending.
10. Succulents and cacti, while they have evolved independently, are very similar in their adaptations because they have evolved in very similar environmental conditions.

I have a roof over my head; graduate-level education; easy access to food; frequent opportunities for travel; an ability to be pulled over by police without wondering whether it is because of my race, gender, or ethnicity; the ability to walk around the places I live without worrying about violence or being attacked; parental financial support; and the ability to apply for jobs without worrying that I will be discriminated against. I can use these privileges to share my economic privilege with those in need; to take what I have learned in my education and apply it to ethical living and social justice; to take what I have learned from travel and apply it the same way; to support oppressed communities in whatever way I can that they would support (without resorting to “white man’s burden” activism); to continue living for others, rather than myself, since I have the privilege to know that I will likely not be hurt by violence; and to use the ability to work without discrimination to serve those who are oppressed or don’t have the same privilege.

The most meaningful thing I can do with my life is whatever my dharma is. To be honest, I’m not sure what I’m here for yet. I’m pretty sure I’m supposed to be a preacher and am supposed to study UFOs (yeah. I know. Sounds weird, but that’s what I perceive the signs to be pointing to). Other than that, however, I’m not sure how the whole trajectory of the rest of my life is supposed to go. For now, I guess the most meaningful thing I can do is to do what I should be doing right now, which is being a student who works hard.

Right now, as part of Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, I’m trying to save the life of a person on death row whose execution is likely to be botched because of his medical condition. It will likely be a painful, horrible death if it goes down. I’m praying that what I do makes a difference, but the situation looks dire right now, despite the fact that Russell Bucklew has clearly shown remorse. Please sign this petition to help me, if you are willing.
https://www.change.org/p/sparerussell

When I was asking people about getting health insurance out-of-state for my needed daily medication and kept getting denied (which really started making me angry, since I’m an out-of-state student), it might have helped to remember that, while the experience was difficult, it was a firsthand experience of how injustice becomes implemented in the systems created to help us. From this, I could be grateful for the lessons I learn about systemic injustice and resolutions for it. Right now, I am actually becoming more curious about law so I can know whether a civil suit is possible if this does end up becoming a problem. If nothing else, a bad experience usually has some good knowledge and wisdom to impart.