My review in the bad place:
This is one of those rare books that changes what I think a book can be.
A beautiful meditation on the human condition as coupled to the — so-called — "Overwatch Effect." It took me a while to catch the rhythm of the book, but once I was in, I was in.
I'm not going to pretend that I understand your culture, I don't. But I can understand the "child of immigrants" position in the world that we share. I just started a LOT longer ago.
And I won't belabour the point. I'll sum up.
They moved here because of what THEY wanted. They also want you to be eternally grateful and follow their example. Except, you are a person, too. So, if they can't see how glorious you can be, they can either watch you struggle with cognitive dissonance induced depression forever or they can let you grow, explore and find what you're great at.
For the record, I needed a clean break from my dad to be able to rebuild my life. He was the role in my life that was toxic in the same way you describe your mom. That was in 2005. Incidentally, part of my story also had me leave North America for over a decade. I spent some time in Korea and China while I was away.
Value is a loaded term here.
If, as I assume, she means "economic" value — in a twisted, Judeo-Christian, colonialist, capitalist, explotative system — then, sure, value is assigned to money and only the top 0.001% of earners "have value". Bully to the 99.999% of people on Earth who spend their lives delivering that value to the top. I hazard the guess your mom is one of those people.
Also, loaded into that term, if she has among her moral values those the western, chauvinistic, Biblical moral set, I might be inclined to question whether she lives up to her own values of charity, humility, and acceptance.
What everyone has is an "intrinsic" value; a unique set of experiences and gifts that has never existed before in the universe and never will again. We are here to delight in each other's presence and potential. This doesn't do much for the bottom line... until it does.
Collaboration on shared goals, building sustainable practices, and ensuring plenty for all are among humanity's highest intrinsic, economic, and moral functions. Previously, I said that the values system your mom probably considers correct is twisted; that's because in this system the highest functions are immense power, immediate profit, and absolute exploitation. These are ignored or invisible to most.
Your mom's blindness and/or ignorance is what makes her tragically wrong.
I didn't know that's what this was called. It is one carol that doesn't bother me no matter how many times it's played.
We all die alone. Unless you're the pilot.
Working retail for a decade-plus did it all in for me. 100 cumulative weeks of Christmas carols, decorations, impatience, childish adults, stress, and readjusting merchandising just so we could be told that we missed targets, underperformed, and failed at loss prevention.
So, I quit. I also quit X-mas. I celebrated on beaches for a few years. That was great. In deserts for a few as well. But, alas, I have returned to the rugged white north and the big-box spectacle. I have children who get a "normal" Christmas. The elf is on a shelf.
As for dying alone, I choose life. It's the part we experience. I have a partner and a family, true. More on this later. But, I don't plan on being parked in a nursing home as a drooling, vegetative, sieve-brained, line-item expense; or some mega-corp, health-sector, big-pharm farm animal. Milowda na animal.
When I can no-longer read and write and wipe my own bum — or when the pain, despair, and attendant paperwork for living threatens to overwhelm my desire to continue — I'll want no part of this life anymore.
I'm an introvert. My kids mourn my partner going to a yoga class more than they'll ever mourn my passing. My wife would be pissed it wasn't put in the shared calendar. I've not got roots anywhere anymore, so my funeral will be sparsely attended. My close friends, I see once a year. My sibs would attend. But, that's essentially it. None of my colleagues from previous schools. None of my students. None of the people I met in travels. None of my old schoolmates. All those ties are gone.
What's left? Not much. So be it. Today, I'm alive. Today, I can learn, create, and leave messages in bottles. Today, I can respond to you and say the time, place and circumstance of your death tells nothing about you. The times, places, and decisions of your life — from a single room to the infinite vacuum — only partially tell your story. You, being here, tell the rest.
No, I was checking whether you thought it was the ✝️-ians who were annoyed. Like, who the "their" was in your question:
Do you feel like that lessens [✝️-ians] annoyance about it? (I assume the ✝️-ians are annoyed be virtually everything non-traditional at this point)
Or
Do you feel like that lessens [the Greeks] annoyance about it? (I didn't know the Greeks would be annoyed about it. But, hey, you live you learn.)
Or
Do you feel like that lessens [the English] annoyance about it? (I assume the English would be annoyed because of the aforementioned laziness in spelling)
Hating on 1950s X-mas carols.
Who, the X-ians?
Ill find it and have a listen.
They're all the same. Rotated 90° for each one. Except for the 'e', they flipped that one.
The Secretary General of the legit United Nations, said this.
Are there any adults in the rooms where decisions like "bomb Gaza" are made? Why are so few saying what defeated Jamaal Bowman are saying, "permanent ceasefire now". And remember how Bowman was defeated. $17K/hr.
Also, cute story, Lebanon is the only other country in the world to feature a plant on its flag. The Lebanese are beautiful, Mediterranean people. LEBANON is at the crossroads of empires, and now — as is often the case — Lebanese are victims of outland calamities; Syria, the dock, and econonic collapse.
Hezb. are based there. Lebanon is thus remade like Afghanistan. Isr. reserves the right to "defend".
BMO IFL in Toronto. Rumored to be coming to its end.
Used as insult by Uhura in first J.J. Abrams Star Trek (2009) film.
Urban Dictionary has an entry from 2004