It's taken a while, but I am done, finally, with the politics of "deserving." You can twist yourself into knots & waste so much time trying to calculate who deserves what. In fact: no one deserves the incalculable gift of being human. So… get over it, and give it all away.
I can trace the roots of this evolution with surprising precision. On 11/1/11, I wrote this note to myself, and I've never quite forgotten it:
> The demons all want human bodies. Best ride in the universe. Ultimate cosmic prize. Doesn't matter whose. Any human body is a treasure
> The demons all want human bodies. Best ride in the universe. Ultimate cosmic prize. Doesn't matter whose. Any human body is a treasure
In 2012, I wrote this post about my mentor and patron James Naughton, who routinely & enthusiastically supported people who had done nothing to deserve it: https://www.robinsloan.com/notes/james-naughton/
And, more recently, I got to hear @alexismadrigal recount this parable even before he reported it here, and it… sort of… blew my mind? https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/11/raised-by-youtube/570838/