{"id":224940,"date":"2020-04-18T06:16:24","date_gmt":"2020-04-18T13:16:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=224940"},"modified":"2020-04-18T06:58:22","modified_gmt":"2020-04-18T13:58:22","slug":"peace-and-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/04\/18\/peace-and-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Peace And War"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>For myself growing up, I grew up in a traumatic childhood situation of war-like situations. Poverty. Not during whether my mom would be able to pay the rent at the end of every month. Not sure if my dad would steal money from mom and gamble it away (it happened many times).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Growing up was good for me. Why? It hardened me. Truth be told, the hardest years of my life were probably middle school. High school was hard, but far easier. College was a cake walk. Becoming self-employed was difficult, yet fun, challenging, interesting, and I already knew what it felt like living with little (I was never afraid of going broke or bankruptcy, because I saw my mom go through it, and it wasn&#8217;t <em>that<\/em> bad). But anyways, in my life I have had cycles of war and peace. Then peace and war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, this is my thought:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>American society has had a very long period of peace (at least for us private citizens in the states). Now, with COVID, we are at war.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>So what will happen?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A different kind of war.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1710\" data-attachment-id=\"224663\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/80c08fba-6fff-4372-878b-5572c76e0303\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/80C08FBA-6FFF-4372-878B-5572C76E0303-scaled.jpeg?fit=2560%2C1710&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"2560,1710\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"red black ERIC KIM abstract\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/80C08FBA-6FFF-4372-878B-5572C76E0303-scaled.jpeg?fit=2560%2C1710&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/80C08FBA-6FFF-4372-878B-5572C76E0303-scaled.jpeg?fit=2560%2C1710&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/80C08FBA-6FFF-4372-878B-5572C76E0303-scaled.jpeg?resize=2560%2C1710&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"red black ERIC KIM abstract\" class=\"wp-image-224663\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/80C08FBA-6FFF-4372-878B-5572C76E0303-scaled.jpeg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/80C08FBA-6FFF-4372-878B-5572C76E0303-scaled.jpeg?resize=768%2C513&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/80C08FBA-6FFF-4372-878B-5572C76E0303-scaled.jpeg?resize=1536%2C1026&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/80C08FBA-6FFF-4372-878B-5572C76E0303-scaled.jpeg?resize=2048%2C1368&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/80C08FBA-6FFF-4372-878B-5572C76E0303-scaled.jpeg?resize=720%2C481&amp;ssl=1 720w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>We are currently in a metaphorical war. A war with a virus. With an unknown enemy. Yet this is the problem:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>We become more afraid of our fellow human beings.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Why? It is combination of seeing others as a zombie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, if you&#8217;re infected with COVID, your signs might not immediately be apparent on the outside. Yet you have the potential or ability to infect me (something I don&#8217;t want to happen). Thus we keep our distance (<a href=\"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/04\/01\/the-sociology-of-social-distancing\/\">social distancing<\/a>) from others. But what is the consequence?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>Every man for themselves (kind of like the mentality of Fortnite, where it is a &#8216;Free For All&#8217; battle). <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">War mentality<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1710\" data-attachment-id=\"224664\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/a8ead1f7-b4d3-4a5d-bbb4-2e368c45de94\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/A8EAD1F7-B4D3-4A5D-BBB4-2E368C45DE94-scaled.jpeg?fit=2560%2C1710&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"2560,1710\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"ERIC KIM blue black abstract\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/A8EAD1F7-B4D3-4A5D-BBB4-2E368C45DE94-scaled.jpeg?fit=2560%2C1710&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/A8EAD1F7-B4D3-4A5D-BBB4-2E368C45DE94-scaled.jpeg?fit=2560%2C1710&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/A8EAD1F7-B4D3-4A5D-BBB4-2E368C45DE94-scaled.jpeg?resize=2560%2C1710&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"ERIC KIM blue black abstract\" class=\"wp-image-224664\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/A8EAD1F7-B4D3-4A5D-BBB4-2E368C45DE94-scaled.jpeg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/A8EAD1F7-B4D3-4A5D-BBB4-2E368C45DE94-scaled.jpeg?resize=768%2C513&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/A8EAD1F7-B4D3-4A5D-BBB4-2E368C45DE94-scaled.jpeg?resize=1536%2C1026&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/A8EAD1F7-B4D3-4A5D-BBB4-2E368C45DE94-scaled.jpeg?resize=2048%2C1368&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/A8EAD1F7-B4D3-4A5D-BBB4-2E368C45DE94-scaled.jpeg?resize=720%2C481&amp;ssl=1 720w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Right now during the time of COVID, what are the vibes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My thoughts and observations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Social distancing<\/strong> (cannot trust your neighbor, not because they are bad evil people, but they may be infected). Thus be kind to your neighbor, smile, and wave high&#8230; but observe the 20-foot rule.<\/li><li><strong>Rationing mentality<\/strong>: We gotta hoard up and store up on foods and other goods, because we do not know if they will not be available in the future. For example during war, there are only limited quantities of food, items, and resources. Perhaps the reason why Americans are freaking out so much is because we have never had this thought that &#8220;oh no&#8230; things might not always be so plentiful and unlimited&#8221;. One of my upsides of going to <a href=\"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/09\/my-experience-traveling-and-shooting-street-photography-in-havana-cuba-for-the-first-time\/\">Cuba<\/a>; to live with rations is a part of life there, and it ain&#8217;t so bad&#8211; we <a href=\"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2019\/04\/10\/adaptation\/\">adapt<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2019\/08\/16\/evolve-2\/\">evolve<\/a>!<\/li><li><strong>Fear<\/strong>: Everyone staying indoors and living in fear. <a href=\"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/03\/05\/social-media-slavery\/\">Social media<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/03\/17\/why-i-dont-follow-the-news\/\">news<\/a> and other source of media feeding us &#8216;<a href=\"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/04\/02\/fear-feeds\/\">fear feeds<\/a>&#8216;, and &#8216;<a href=\"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/03\/25\/fear-porn\/\">fear porn<\/a>&#8216;.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What do soldiers do during a war? We fight!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-videopress\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"VideoPress Video Player\" aria-label='VideoPress Video Player' width='500' height='281' src='https:\/\/videopress.com\/embed\/IkwBv7Nu?autoPlay=1&amp;loop=1&amp;muted=1&amp;persistVolume=0&amp;preloadContent=metadata&amp;hd=0&amp;cover=1' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen allow='clipboard-write'><\/iframe><script src='https:\/\/v0.wordpress.com\/js\/next\/videopress-iframe.js?m=1674852142'><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The most important people in society right now &#8212; <a href=\"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/04\/11\/effective-altruism-during-covid\/\">front-line health workers<\/a>, food-industry-supply-chain people, sanitation\/hygiene people, doctors, etc. It has shown us what is truly &#8220;essential&#8221; in life:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/04\/15\/health-is-wealth\/\">Health<\/a><\/li><li>Food<\/li><li>Infrastructure, transportation, the internet.<\/li><li>Hygiene and sanitation (something we have not appreciated or thought about for a very long time&#8230;)<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>So we as private individuals and civilians, what are we to do? Like my friend <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UC2-XBSEDlYoGE9FhMBo2G5g\">Dylan Fan<\/a> did &#8212; go out and document and see it for yourself. Or even for myself, go outside and live on as much as possible (within legal bounds):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-videopress\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"VideoPress Video Player\" aria-label='VideoPress Video Player' width='500' height='281' src='https:\/\/videopress.com\/embed\/In836dMx?autoPlay=1&amp;loop=1&amp;muted=1&amp;persistVolume=0&amp;preloadContent=metadata&amp;hd=0&amp;cover=1' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen allow='clipboard-write'><\/iframe><script src='https:\/\/v0.wordpress.com\/js\/next\/videopress-iframe.js?m=1674852142'><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">War is good<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>War is good. It strengthens. It builds muscles. It hardens us. It makes us <a href=\"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/03\/30\/that-which-attempts-to-destroy-you-only-makes-you-stronger\/\">stronger<\/a>, more <a href=\"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2018\/03\/14\/how-to-succeed-as-a-photography-entrepreneur-be-extremely-resourceful\/\">resourceful<\/a>, more &#8216;scrappy&#8217;, and less wasteful. It focuses us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also consider, PRE-COVID, so much of us were obsessed with the newest iPhone coming out, silly products, distracting things to buy. Consumerism was our slavery. Now we are living in this <a href=\"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/03\/30\/biological-warfare\/\">metaphorical biological war<\/a> with the virus-enemy, we think differently. We act differently. We approach life differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The cycle of war and peace<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Why do people like to watch war movies, play war video games and so forth? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>I think more people want MORE drama in their lives.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>But now when the drama is quite literally in-your-face (pandemic), then let us consider&#8211; is this what we really want? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to thrive during a pandemic<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>So the question:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>How can we best thrive during pandemic?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>My thoughts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Use this opportunity to <a href=\"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/04\/17\/what-is-your-opinion-what-do-you-think\/\">think<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2019\/12\/08\/all-i-wanna-do-is-make-photos-and-philosophize\/\">philosophize<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/12\/17\/photo-journal-a-workbook-reflection-assignments-journal-by-eric-kim\/\">reflect on your life<\/a>. To <a href=\"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/03\/29\/zen-of-eric-ebook-pdf-now-available-for-free\/\">meditate<\/a>. To <a href=\"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/04\/07\/what-are-your-new-life-goals-post-covid-creating-art\/\">posit NEW life goals for yourself<\/a>.<\/li><li>Use this chance to <a href=\"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/04\/05\/nonfuture-film-by-cindy-nguyen\/\">make art<\/a>, photos. Use the high stress of the moment to make diamonds.<\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For myself growing up, I grew up in a traumatic childhood situation of war-like situations. Poverty. Not during whether my mom would be able to pay the rent at the end of every month. Not sure if my dad would steal money from mom and gamble it away (it happened many times). Growing up was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":224663,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-224940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/80C08FBA-6FFF-4372-878B-5572C76E0303-scaled.jpeg?fit=2560%2C1710&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224940"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":224954,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224940\/revisions\/224954"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}