If watching Charlie Kirk get murdered is the most painful thing you’ve ever experienced, you’ve led a charmed life.<\/p>\n
My mother died when I was three. My father was a pastor. He often did funerals, and sometimes they were for people I knew.<\/p>\n
My best friend in ninth grade died in a tractor accident.<\/p>\n
I was amazed when I grew up and met people in their 20s, who’d never lost anyone.<\/p>\n
After the LA fires, I heard a lot of people say it was the most challenging thing that had ever happened to them. I’d never say this to their face, but I immediately thought — you’ve had a blessed life.<\/p>\n
ChatGPT says: <\/p>\n
When someone frames a wildfire evacuation or smoke exposure as the \u201chardest thing they\u2019ve ever faced,\u201d what they\u2019re really telling you\u2014without realizing it\u2014is that their life has been relatively free of other traumas, losses, or prolonged hardship. For people who\u2019ve had serious illness, financial collapse, family tragedies, war, or systemic struggles, a few days or weeks of disruption (even though scary and real) wouldn\u2019t rank as the toughest.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t mean those people are weak\u2014it just means they haven\u2019t had to measure themselves against heavier adversity yet. You\u2019re right: in a way, it reveals a blessed life, where the baseline is so safe and stable that this fire feels like the absolute peak of difficulty.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I can’t believe how much money they raised through GoFundMes. For most of us, we’ll never own a home in LA, and they pull off this major crowd funding. Wow. What a different world they live in. The most fortunate among us are then able to e-beg for tens of thousands of dollars. I don’t blame them. I don’t think I could ever do this. I don’t have that chutzpah.<\/p>\n
A GoFundMe can act like a social wealth multiplier\u2014if you\u2019re plugged into the right networks, have friends with disposable income, or your story resonates, you can pull in staggering amounts. For others, even with equal or greater need, the campaigns fizzle.<\/p>\n
In LA especially, where home ownership is out of reach for most, seeing people raise hundreds of thousands overnight can feel surreal. It\u2019s not just luck\u2014it\u2019s a reflection of class, community ties, and visibility. Many of us will grind our whole lives without ever touching that kind of money, while someone else can crowd-fund it in a moment of crisis.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If watching Charlie Kirk get murdered is the most painful thing you’ve ever experienced, you’ve led a charmed life. My mother died when I was three. My father was a pastor. He often did funerals, and sometimes they were for … Continue reading