Pandantic

Last month, on May 6th, I turned 27 years old. To mark the occasion, I took some time to reflect on 27 things I'm grateful for:
(1) My friends, for being there when I needed it most.
(2) My family, for (REDACTED - my personal life is none of your business!]
(3) The many talented and generous individuals who - if not for my current predicament - I never would've crossed paths with.
(4) Letters. I spend each day between the same four walls of my unit, where I receive both holiday cards sent in December and birthday cards sent between March and May, creating a bizarre and disorienting Groundhog Day scenario where every day is both Christmas and my May 6th birthday. Nonetheless, I'm incredibly grateful. The monotony of my physical environment is offset by the variety and richness of the lives I experience through letters: multi-page life stories, retellings of workplace conversations, stream of consciousness journal entries. Admissions of greatest fears, eager recaps of recent triumphs, mothers reliving senseless tragedies. Soulful creations, generous offers, advice.
(5) The MDC Mail Room, which has - to date - photocopied and processed thousands of letters sent to me from over 40 countries. Your efforts are appreciated by so many.
(6) Memes. As one of my wisest correspondents put it: "Laughter is louder than logic and makes a lot more sense."
(7) The countless books I've been sent. While I'll never read the vast majority of them, I've loved facilitating this collective practice in tsundoku, and have distributed these books to many grateful inmates. My favorites include Ayn Rand's "Anthem". Patrick Bet-David's "Your Next Five Moves", and Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451".
(8) Independent media/creators: publications like "The American Prospect", citizen documentarians like Joomi Kim, and citizen journalists (of which there are too many to name.)
(9) My cellmate J, who - despite spending half of every day inside a shared birdcage and being sentenced to a decade away from his six kids who he loves - tolerates the clutter of all my papers, shares his unique wisdom, and doesn't hesitate to humble me when I need it. He reads more of my books than I do, and appreciates all the Calvin and Hobbes.
(10) The MDC staff and CO's, who are nothing like what "The Shawshank Redemption" or "The Stanford Prison Experiment" had me to believe. While the occasional minor dissent arises, I've found that they are people too and largely there to help.
(11) Chicken Thursdays, and Sweet Baby Ray's bbq sauce. (Sorry vegans. It's the realest food here, and I need my strength.)
(12) Keyboard shortcuts. There is no "print multiple" option. [M A click click Enter X P click click Enter], repeat.
(13) The some 30,000 individuals around the globe who have come together to donate over $1,000,000 to my legal fund, enabling me to retain a world class defense team across three concurrent prosecutions.
(14) Karen Friedman Agnifilo. Need I say more?
(15) The other members of my legal team, who are also pretty great (see #3).
(16) "Latinas for Mangione".
(17) Everyone who has donated to my commissary account, whose contributions have funded a tablet, songs, stamps, hygiene items, bbq sauce, Goya sazon, peanut butter, and lots of tuna packets.
(18) The BOP music catalog. [Luigi is currently listening to "Television: The Drug of the Nation" by The Disposable Heroes of...]
(19) The trials that I've endured, which have - I hope - prepared me for anything that might lie ahead.
(20) My lucky long sleeve.
(21) Hearts.
(22) The creatives. "The artist's task is to save the soul of mankind; and anything less is a dithering while Rome burns" - Terence McKenna.
(23) The conservatives, who fiercely conserve the aspects of our society that make us great.
(24) The liberals, who liberate us from the outdated aspects of our society that prevent us from being greater.
(25) Being born in America. She is haunted by her past, she is sick, she is plagued by inner turmoil - such is her nature as a nation of individuals. She is young, in the midst of an adolescent identity crisis. But despite all her flaws, her frame is robust and her potential unmatched
(26) Free speech, the basis of our way of life. "When you tear out a man's tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you're only telling the world that you fear what he might say" - George.

And finally,
(27) [Blurred Out]

(Signature)
Luigi Mangione