Lyric of the Moment 13

"We only humans girl we make mistakes /
to make it up I do whatever it takes /
I love you like a fat kid love cake /
You know my style I say anything to make you smile"

         ~ 50 Cent, 21 Questions

After the American Dream

According to this op-ed by Howard Bryant, Jeremy Lin "is the dream of the immigrant: American-born of parents who emigrated from Taiwan with grandparents in China. He is a national and international symbol of what is possible in the United States, evidence of what generations of sweat and sacrifice and dreaming can produce."

If this is the American Dream, to be able to pick yourself up by the bootstraps and to achieve wealth, comfort, and a better life, what happens after you've got it?  If I'm honest with myself, that the hope and admiration that I feel towards JLin represents the victories that I seek (in Bryant's parlance), I can admit that my thought process rarely goes beyond what happens after these victories are achieved.  So in some ways this unconsciously makes them the highest good, relatively speaking.  Still, this isn't all that surprising as usually the goals and victories we shoot for are often far beyond where we currently are and as a result, the mystery that lies between is enough to make us stop in our tracks.  As Cardinal Basil Hume says in the Mystery of the Incarnation (excerpt here), "Our age dislikes intensely the idea of mystery, because it directly exposes our limitations."  Being exposed to your limitations for the first time is some scary shit.

But when I do finally ask, "Then what?" after hypothetically achieving my dreams, I guess those thoughts boil down to simply wanting my life to matter - that people admire me and that I would be able to make a tangible impact on the world.  At worst, wanting a better life for my children and descendants almost seems like just a narcissistic desire that my seed or lineage or whatever you want to call it was good enough.  If the achievement of the dream is the thing that then makes our lives matter, my personal social observation tells me that this falls woefully short of the proverbial "meaning of life."  It seems that of all the people who have achieved the "American Dream" (if that is even quantifiable), there are many who are still dissatisfied and are unsure what to do with the parts of their life that are broken. 

I think part of what makes Lin-Sanity so appealing is that Jeremy seems to have a "what" after the achievement of his NBA dream in that he plays for the glory of God and he knows (and is probably still growing in the idea) that with or without his NBA success, he still is a Beloved child of God.

Lyric of the Moment 12

"I'm Mary and I'm Martha all at the same time /
I'm sitting at His feet and yet I'm dying to be recognized /
I am a picture of contentment and I am dissatisfied /
Why is it easy to work, but hard to rest sometimes?"

          ~ Audrey Assad, Lament

Flirt to Convert

Kim Kardashian to date Jeremy Lin?

Don't do it.  I mean, maybe do it for the experience (and for the sex appeal of Asian American males everywhere!).  Wait, no, that's concupiscence talking.  I think.

Living water would probably do real good quenching the thirst here of being famous and staying relevant.

If ever this book needed to be real, now is the time.  Linsanity (reflecting God's glory, of course) could single-handedly be the savior of society restoring faith to people everywhere.

Boxer Leg Holes

It's annoying when your toes get caught in the leg hole when putting on your boxers while standing. 

It seems to only happen when you're in a hurry or after a shower.

You know what I'm talking about.

To-do Lists

When my to-do list gets too long, I don't want to look at it and I have trouble getting over the mental barrier of starting something.

When my to-do list gets too short, I don't want to add anything to it because I like the illusion of having been productive.

I'm Going Lin-sane!

     "Man, all this love feels sooo goood."

More random musings on Jeremy Lin:

• You know that Chinese mom typecast where they're all sitting around playing mahjong in their green Darth Vader visors bragging about their kids' accomplishments?  Jeremy's mom is now the de-facto queen of these sessions which incidentally for her probably happens around a potluck Bible Study with egg rolls and fried rice. 
  
       "Well, my son graduated from Harvard, is un-bee-ey star, and loves Jesus!"
  
  Fellow Asian moms squeal, "哇! 我好羨慕你!"
  
  Asian dad says:
  
  
  
  
• Lots of superstars in the NBA are individual scorers that can carry a team, but don't always make their teammates better.  JLin is a floor general leading this team and making everyone around him better (I'm looking at you, Steve Ker-I mean Novak). Can you believe that? An Asian man in leadership. We need more of this badly.
  
  
• I guess it makes sense, but cuts and bruises show up a lot more prominently on Asian people than black people.
  
  
  
  
• Taiwan is a place where ABC's often feel cool since they are surrounded by FOBs (but they're not FOBs because you know, they're in their home country...) and historically, ABC's were treated that way.  In the last few years, it seems that perception has started to change for the worse.  However, Jeremy is bringing us back into prominence there as well.