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Aaron Pitkin's Priorities - Coggle Diagram
Aaron Pitkin's Priorities
Family
Mom (Barbara)
He seems to be more like his mother, and is more closer to his mother
Aaron kept a copy of a photograph taken before his mother's arrest on his desk
When his father fell ill, Aaron pondered how much time he would spend visiting him in the hospital. He thought, "how would he act if it were his mother in this position. He loved his mother a lot. He thought he would probably do the same thing, because it was the right thing to do, but it would be more difficult"
Aaron contemplated taking full care of his father because of how he made his mother miserable
Dad (Mike)
Aaron had his father transferred to a hospital instead of him being at a hospice care
"How should he weigh his responsibilty to his father versus his responsibility to his work?"
"[Leana], like [Aaron], considered family obligations tedious and generally tried to avoid them"
School/Education
High School
"He didn't like being told what to do"
"He was always on the lookout for a good protest or scheme"
College
"...he decided to dedicate his life to social justice"
Read Peter Singer's article "Famine, Affluence and Mortality"
"He decided that animals were more oppressed than people"
Flunked a college final exam to save worms during a rainstorm
Graduate School
Worked at charities, was involved in protests
Love
Jen
"[Aaron's] activism, she realized was the other woman in their relationship, and one with which she could never compete"
Aaron refused to pay off her credit debt; he could use that money to help more people!
Their marriage lasted 2 years
"Now, after all the years of guilt living with Jen, he was free at last to devote himself completely to his activism"
Leana
"The love of his life"
"She was nearly as frugal as he was..."
Leana was perfectly fine with Aaron not putting too much time in their relationship, she liked being alone anyway
"[Aaron] was in love with a woman who didn't want more from him than he could give her"
Girl from high school
"[Aaron] felt that she was so deeply wounded and had had such a terrible life that she deserved to have someone who would treat her well'
She would steal money from him to buy drugs. She would hit him so bad it gave him bloody lips - "He could take the abuse, he figured - he was strong enough and came from a good enough family"
ANIMAL ACTIVISM
It all started with chickens!
Vegetarian --> vegan
After several years at the animal-rights organization, Aaron brought legislative and corporate victories for chickens
"[Jen] worked hard, but Aaron was
always
working, and work always came first"
"When he wasn't taking classes, he would go on speaking tours and be on the road for weeks"
"He was constantly on the move. He gave about forty talks a month, driving all over the country in a donated car, which he slept in if no one was putting him up"
"What if the lesson of his effectiveness was not that he deserved to kick back a little, but that he was obliged to work harder than ever, now that he was getting more done? That would be more logical"
Comfort
Tidiness
Left laundry piled up, dishes in sink
"[Aaron told [Jen] that time spent washing dishes could be time spent working for animal rights, which were more important"
AC/Heat
"[Aaron] kept the heat down low even in the middle of winter"
When Aaron and Leana moved in together, and heat and AC were included in the rent, Aaron indulged himself in the "free resource", but Leana would shut off the vents in her room
Finances
"[Aaron] whittled his spending down to twenty-four thousand a year, then to twelve thousand a year, then nine"
"He still donated nearly half of his salary, but that wasn't his focus"
Food
made batches of hummus and lentil soup to save money (since he was donating most of money to charity)
Physical activity
The doctor told him that he needed more exercise
Aaron bought a walking treadmill and weighting belts so he can use them while working
Sleep/Rest
"He experimented with sleeping less - three hours a night, four hours a night - to see if he could get more work done that way, and to see how long he could keep it up before he collapsed"
"He began to draw up flow charts and makes lists, to figure out how he could use his days most efficiently"
Free time
Going out with friends
Aaron rarely spent time with his friends
"If he spent the evening working, he knew he would get something done"
"He had joked with a couple of his closest activist friends that if they saw him getting too easy on himself and neglecting his duty; rather than let him grow old and complacent, they should take a pillow and smother him to death"
Alcohol consumption
Watch TV
"How could he relax and watch TV when people were starving?"
Religion
Aaron was bullied for being Jewish in school - he told his mom that he doesn't believe in God
"He put aside his dislike of religion to say Kaddish with [Jen], because she didn't want to pray alone"