jspark3000

[jspark3000]

My dad-in-law asks my almost five year old daughter what family means to her.

She says, “Family means love. Family is when we eat together, we laugh together, we play together, we go to sleep at the same time together.”

That’s my new definition of family. 🫶

[jspark3000]

흑인의 생명은 소중하다.

In Korean, the phrase Black Lives Matter translates to Black Lives Are Precious. You more than matter. You are more than worthy of protection. Black lives are beloved, cherished, dignified, and made in the Image Divine.

[jspark3000]

Jesus telling the church. I almost want to get this shirt. 🙃

[jspark3000]

There’s a lot being said about voices who are silent right now. The criticism is fair. It’s hard to see the lack of clarity and the business-as-usual.

I just want to say I am very thankful for those who are speaking up at a cost. It’s always a great thing to see the person you hoped they’d be is who they are. Amidst disappointment, this is a small gift.

Thank you to those leveraging their platforms to say the truth. Who have elevated the safety of the vulnerable over their own comfort.

[jspark3000]

A reminder:

Politeness

does not equal

rightness.

[jspark3000]

So many mock those who protest, but every single one of us has always benefited from the very road paved by those before us, those who are fighting hard for humanity.

Fighting for our rights will always benefit everyone. None of us got here by settling for less.

[jspark3000]

I am reminded again:

When you see those moved in collective grief, permeated by anger, shouting, marching, singing, and shaking,

this is our necessary and ancient response when we know change must happen.

Listen to this grief.

It has been silenced but can never be silenced for long. ❤️‍🩹

[jspark3000]

I am always frustrated by those who are more offended by the wounded person being hurt than the actual pain that was caused.

To dismiss someone’s pain because their reaction is “too loud” is a deflection from accountability, repair, and real change.

If I am wounded but I must manage your reaction to my reaction, you only add injury to injury. If you are offended by my pain, you have not seen me—only yourself. Spend the energy to see and to repair, not to defend your harm, which only harms.

[jspark3000]

I went to see a new patient and the RN told me, “Heads up. Our patient is she/her."

My patient at one point asked me a question, and I replied “Yes ma’am.” She hadn’t quite looked at me until I said that. Afterward she was fully engaged.

It took roughly zero seconds to validate her dignity.

Thank you to the RN for the heads up. ❤️‍🩹

[jspark3000]

I saw my patient three times in a single shift.

Once to support him as he processed his dying.

The second time to support him & his family & to give a prayer they requested.

The third time, that prayer turned out to be his final one.

Life is as fast

as a spoken word.

So be gentle.

[jspark3000]

Your pain needs

no qualification

to be heard—

pain qualifies itself.

Your anger must be given room—

it is a wound to be tended to.

[jspark3000]

When my one year old daughter got Covid in 2021, I got replies on Twitter such as “it’s just God and nature” and “kids die everyday” and “it’s your fault from the hospital.” Most were “husband/father” and “pro-life.”

Sadly, I do not expect the unmoved to suddenly be moved by *Palestinian children are being killed.* Bigotry has caused so much brain rot that even children are seen as expendable.

Still, we have to keep speaking up for them. If not to change minds, then to preserve our heart.

[jspark3000]

I remember once someone telling me that I’m not qualified to speak on atrocities because I am biased working at the hospital.

It’s true. For ten years, I’ve seen level 1 traumas and I’ve witnessed horrific violence and devastated families. It has changed me. So I am biased.

For me, this *bias* keeps me human. To see lives cut short by violent injustice. Not photos or videos, but up close. Does this disqualify me? Who is “qualified” to speak?

I can only say: It should be all of us speaking. 🗣️

[jspark3000]

In case anyone needs this:

You are 100% right to be mad about all the chaos and violence you are seeing.

You are 100% right to grieve angry over bad leadership, harmful platforms, misinformation, destructive policy.

You are 100% right to be disappointed in people who are silent on what matters and telling you that you’re overreacting.

You are 100% right to flip tables.

Please do not let anyone convince you otherwise.

I’m with you. We’re still moving against the current that has besieged us.

[jspark3000]

“You write in order to change the world, knowing perfectly well that you probably can't, but also knowing that literature is indispensable to the world.

“In some way, your aspirations and concern for a single man in fact do begin to change the world. The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way a person looks or people look at reality, then you can change it.”

— James Baldwin, interview in The New York Times, Sep. 23rd 1979

[jspark3000]

I struggle a lot with faith these days because of all I've seen at the hospital, but I know this much:

My faith follows the life of a man who was ly*ched, under false accusations, illegally disappeared at night, by religious and political powers, as he protested those authorities. He was a child refugee, he built with his hands, he healed and fed and took in the sick and hungry, he constantly cautioned about wealth, he never refused children.

To me, if anything, his life is resonant more than ever.

[jspark3000]

I have never believed in "the good old days" or making this country "great again."

The same machine that

drops bombs on hospitals in Gaza

dropped bombs outside as my grandmother shielded her six children with her own body

disappears citizens overnight

submits healthcare to the whims of the rich

set my immigrant parents against other immigrants has always been the same. What we are seeing is more eyes opened to the fight we've always fought.

Every inch of progress requires vigilance.