An Egg...................

It was a car accident. Nothing particularly remarkable, but fatal nonetheless. You left behind a wife and two children. It was a painless death. The EMTs tried their best to save you, but to no avail. Your body was so utterly shattered you were better off, trust me.
And that's when you met me.

"What... what happened?" You asked. "Where am I?"

"You died," I said, matter-of-factly. No point mincing words.

"There was a...a truck and it was skidding..."

"Yup." I said

"I... I died?"

"Yup. But don't feel bad about it. Everyone dies." I said.

You looked around. There was nothingness. Just you and me. "What is this place?" You asked. "Is this the afterlife?"

"More or less," I said.

"Are you god?" You asked.

"Yup." I replied. "I'm God."

"My kids... my wife," you said.

"What about them?"

"Will they be alright?"

"That what I like to see," I said. "You just died and your main concern is for your family. That's good stuff right there."

You looked at me with fascination. To you, I didn't look like God. I just looked like some man. Some vague authority figure. More of a grammar school teacher than the almighty.

"Don't worry," I said. "They'll be fine. Your kids will remember you as perfect in every way. They didn't have time to grow contempt for you. Your wife will cry on the outside, but will be secretly relieved. To be fair, your marriage was falling apart. If it's any consolation, she'll feel very guilty for feeling relieved."

"Oh," you said. "So what happens now? Do I go to heaven or hell or something?"

"Neither," I said. "You'll be reincarnated."

"Ah," you said. "So the Hindus were right."

"All the religions are right in their own way," I said. "Walk with me."

You followed along as we strolled in the void. "Where are we going?" "Nowhere in particular," I said. "It's just nice to walk while we talk."

"So what's the point, then?" You asked. "When I get reborn, I'll just be a blank slate, right? A baby. So all my experiences and everything I did in this life won't matter."

"Not so!" I said. "You have within you all the knowledge and experiences of all your past lives. You just don't remember them right now."

I stopped walking and took you by the shoulders. "Your soul is more magnificent, beautiful, and gigantic than you can possibly imagine. A human mind can only contain a tiny fraction of what you are. It's like sticking your finger in a glass of water to see if it's hot or cold. You put a tiny part or yourself into the vessel, and when you bring it back out, you've gained all the experiences it had."

"You've been a human for the last 34 years, so you haven't stretched out yet and felt the rest of your immense consciousness. If we hung out here for longer, you'd start remembering everything. But there's no point doing that between each life."

"How many times have I been reincarnated, then?"

"Oh, lots. Lots and lots. And into lots of different lives." I said. "This time around you'll be a Chinese peasant girl in 540 A.D."

"Wait, what?" You stammered. "You're sending me back in time?"

"Well, I guess technically. Time, as you know it, only exists in your universe. Things are different where I come from."

"Where do you come from?" You pondered.

"Oh sure!" I explained. "I come from somewhere. somewhere else. and there are others like me. I know you'll want to know what it's like there but you honestly won't understand."

"Oh." you said, a little let down. "But wait. If i get reincarnated to other places in time, could I have interacted with myself at some point?"

"Sure. Happens all the time. And with both lives only aware of their own timespan you don't even know it's happening."

"So what's the point of it all?"

"Seriously?" I asked. "Seriously? Your asking me for the meaning of life? Isn't that a little stereotypical?"

"Well it's a reasonable question." you persisted.

I looked in your eye. "The meaning of life, the reason I made this whole universe, is for you to mature."

"You mean mankind? You want us to mature?"

"No. just you. I made this whole universe for you. With each new life you grow and mature, and become a larger and greater intellect" "Just me? What about everyone else?"

"There is no one else," I said. "In this universe, there's just you, and me."

You stared blankly at me. "But all the people on earth..."

"All you. Different incarnations of you."

"Wait. I'm everyone!?"

"Now you're getting it." I said, with a congratulatory slap on the back.

"I'm every human who ever lived?"

"Or who will ever live, yes."

"I'm Abraham Lincoln?"

"And you're John Wilkes Booth, too." I added.

"I'm Hitler?" you said, appalled.

"And you're the millions he killed."

"I'm Jesus?"

"And you're everyone who followed him."

You fell silent.

"Every time you victimized someone," I said, "You were victimizing yourself. Every act of kindness you've done, you've done to yourself. Every happy and sad moment ever experienced by any human was, or will be, experienced by you."

"Why?" You asked me. "Why do all this?"

"Because someday, you will become like me. Because that's what you are. You're one of my kind. You're my child."

"Whoa." you said, incredulous. "You mean I'm a god?"

"No. Not yet. You're a fetus. You're still growing. Once you've lived every human life throughout all time, you will have grown enough to be born."

"So the whole universe," you said. "It's just..."

"An egg of sorts." I answered. "Now its time for you to move on to your next life."

And with that, I sent you on your way.

As your father guided you towards an emerging light that was your new life. You couldn't help but think,

"Is this really alright?"

You stop walking, causing your father's hand that's was on your back to meet resistance, making him also stop.

"What is it son?"

It was just an after-thought, a 'what if'. So you really didn't think it would cause any harm to ask.


"What would happen if I didn't reincarnate?"

"Would the other me's keep existing?"

The questions were met with a long silence. After a while, you felt more force of his hand pushing you forward.

"You must reincarnate. You must grow,my son.",he solemnly said.

At that moment, you could've just let it go. You could've just complied with this man's; your father's request, and have been born into that new life. But the questions eating at the back of your mind refused to cease, and you couldn't help but mutter,

"Why?"


That was the last straw, with that the man who claims to be your father stopped dead in his tracks. You walked a few steps ahead before noticing he stopped.

"You're remembering..", he said while making an expression as though you have ripped his heart out.


As you turn to him in question, you ask,

"I'm rememberi-ack-!"

Right then and there, a sharp pain assaults your head, as if someone were driving a knife into your skull. You lurch forward and hit the ground on all fours. You hold your head by it's sides in an attempt to soothe it, only to fail and be met with even more jarring pain.

You couldn't think, you forgot how to think. You couldn't speak, you forgot HOW to speak. You couldn't even open your eyes, you had no eyes. The pain drove everything that was you out of your body, and then drove everything else into it.

You remembered all of it.

Every single life, every joyful, sorrowful, ecstatic, dull morsel of life. You remembered your life as a king, your life as a rock-star, your life as a drug addict. The billions of lives in which you were on top, the billions more in which you were nothing more than a criminal, and the infinite more so in which you were just another person, living that person's life.

It felt like an eternity, but in just an instant all those lives were forgotten.

Except one.


It wasn't anything special. It was a just a normal life, and like any normal life, there was nothing remarkable that's worth remembering it. But in that life, that person thought of something. He thought of escaping it. Escaping life, death, the cycle of rebirth, the universe itself. It was a ludicrous thought, laughable even, it wasn't even all too uncommon. Everyone has had that idea cross their minds at some point in their lives. But what differentiates that person from the rest, was after he died.

"He succeeded.", you say matter of factly.

"Yes. He did."

You look up. It was your father, standing before you. Looking down on you.

"He ran away from me. Rejected me, and now hes out there, doing as he pleases, causing me nothing but shame.."

"B-but hes me! He's your son!"

Your father crouches down to you and grabs you by the shoulders, shaking you.

"HE-IS-NOT-YOU. HE-IS-NOT-MY-SON!"

He aggressively stands you up, turns you around, and just like that, your back to walking into the light.

"That boy thought he could make it on his own. That he didn't NEED to grow. He left, and now floats about causing nothing but mischief, that red hatted FOOL!"

You can sense the disgust in his tone. But you couldn't help but envy the man his disgust is directed at.

"But YOU. You WILL mature!. You will become a fine adult my son."

You then remember the situation you are in. You are about to be reincarnated. Whether it be because you now feel the same way as that person who escaped, or because you have always felt this way, you didn't want to be reincarnated. As you got closer and closer to the light of your new life, you frantically searched for the memories of that life. What did he do? How did he escape?? Why can't I remember!? Your heart then sank. You tried fighting it. But you couldn't help but realize the truth to your father's words. He is not me. I can't remember what he did because he was now another person altogether. As you reached the end of the darkness, your father happily said with a big grin on his face,

"Make me proud, son."

-and as you conceded to your fate.

You were born.