Party Weekend
My life partner and I threw one last cocktail party from our swanky-fancy-shmamcy apartment in Manhattan on Friday night.
We are moving in about two weeks.
As party favors, I gave away a bunch of brand new clothes my partner’s friend gifted me.
There was nothing wrong with these clothes — they just weren’t my style. I was so delighted my friends decided to take some of what I didn’t want. (I donated the remainder.)
“We have another winner!” I’d yell because I like being silly but also it felt like a fun little game to be giving clothes away.
Right before the party started, I found out I was robbed of some cryptocurrency.
It was a significant amount of money, but not enough to ruin my day.
At first when I found out about the theft I felt stressed, but over the weekend, my perspective switched to gratitude.
I live really well, I am so well provided for that I get my kicks by giving clothes away, and the fact that there was something to steal from me reflects my privileged, abundant existence.
I had spent a small amount of money some years ago for the right to entertain the story that I owned some digital assets to my name.
But in the most objective sense, all that had happened were that some code got triggered when money left my bank account and some pixels had shifted on my screen.
Upon seeing some digits change and grow on my screen I got to enjoy the story that I was a smart and lucky investor which richly stoked my ego and greed for awhile.
But because I am already so well provided for — no bombs are falling on my head, I have access to clean drinking water at all times, and there’s plenty of food within my reach — when these digits changed to zero the other day, my lived reality did not change.
Still safe.
Still breathing and healthy.
Still abundantly provided for.
What I received in exchange was the sobering realization that I hadn’t taken real responsibility for what I believed I had.
It might sound strange but I don’t feel upset about this theft. At least not today.
It helps to have read many Reddit posts about other people losing cryptocurrency—getting hacked like I have seems more common than I thought. It also helps that I had sufficiently diversified so my overall portfolio remains in tact.
And it really helps that I have been meditating more regularly lately and spent the whole weekend hanging out at the Zen Center.
On Saturday a bunch of us meditators and younger members of Chogyesa temple volunteered to help prepare for Buddha’s birthday celebration which was held today, Sunday.
We got to climb right up onto the Buddha altars and dust off the golden Buddha, bodhisattvas, and protective deities. We got to give the gift of service.
We got to make friends with people from around the world.
We got to share delicious Korean meals and enjoy each other’s company while being graced by bodhicitta — the tender joy of compassionate altruism.
I feel very rich and fortunate to be alive. It is a wonderful gift to be connected to a vibrant community of people who are just as human and therefore flawed but idealistic, peace-seeking, and kind.
I might have a few digits less in numerical net worth, but the work of turning inwards and to each other in community has me feeling so much richer beyond money.
Plus when we move out of this very expensive apartment, it’ll be easier to save more. No complaints.
