As a parent, an accidental one, and a subconsciously intentional one, I have been tasked with ensuring that my children, whom have been delivered unto me by God, not be fucked up from all the fucked up parenting I received.

My parents were both Korean and lived as children during the Korean War (which is still officially not ended). My mom was obsessively religious– very brainwashed– when I told her my priest tried to molest me, my mom told me I was lying. I was atheist for most of my life because of that. Not because of what my pedo priest tried to do, but what my Mom had been brainwashed to believe.

“What’s a slave, Mom?” asked my kid of me today.

My dad was the first-born son in an education family, which, in Korea is a big deal because Korean people actually give a fuck about educating their children (only to the Left hemisphere, though!). He left with a Rockerfeller Fellowship (uhhh!) to become a greedy doctor in America. My mom was also a greedy doctor. I saw the way greed enveloped them and made them die inside. I made a conscious decision to avoid that specific demon, named Greed.

“I’m a slave,” I said, in a half whisper. I cleared my throat. “I am a slave,” I said, again.

My son is playing with Batman and Joker figurines. I have been trying to talk to him about Good and Evil. How Good is caring about others, including animals, and Bad is caring only about yourself. I tell him the Good Guys will win because, yes, I lied, I want to give the next generation some semblance of hope before they wake up to the dismal reality of Indifference/Lack of Care in our human society.

“I don’t get to spend time with you, the way we did this week,” I said. “This is vacation but now, I have to go to work and you have to go to school. We both want to spend time together but we don’t get to. That’s ‘slavery.’”