{"id":842,"date":"2011-09-27T17:22:22","date_gmt":"2011-09-27T21:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/janeterickson.com\/spiritual-healing-blog\/?p=842"},"modified":"2011-09-27T17:23:02","modified_gmt":"2011-09-27T21:23:02","slug":"the-egg-by-andy-weir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/janeterickson.com\/spiritual-healing-blog\/odds-ends\/the-egg-by-andy-weir\/842\/","title":{"rendered":"The Egg &#8211; By Andy Weir"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><body><p>My daughter sent me this the other day and I wanted to share.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Egg &ndash; By Andy Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You were on your way home when you died.<\/p>\n<p>It was a car accident. Nothing particularly remarkable, but fatal nonetheless. You left behind a wife and two children. It was a painless death.<\/p>\n<div style=\"float: right; margin: 3px 10px 3px 3px;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6wnShwtTkjA\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>The EMTs tried their best to save you, but to no avail. Your body was so utterly shattered you were better off, trust me.<\/p>\n<p>And that&rsquo;s when you met me.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;What&hellip; what happened?&rdquo; You asked. &ldquo;Where am I?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;You died,&rdquo; I said, matter-of-factly. No point in mincing words.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;There was a&hellip; a truck and it was skidding&hellip;&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Yup,&rdquo; I said.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I&hellip; I died?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Yup. But don&rsquo;t feel bad about it. Everyone dies,&rdquo; I said.<\/p>\n<p>You looked around. There was nothingness. Just you and me. &ldquo;What is this place?&rdquo; You asked. &ldquo;Is this the afterlife?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;More or less,&rdquo; I said.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Are you god?&rdquo; You asked.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Yup,&rdquo; I replied. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m God.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;My kids&hellip; my wife,&rdquo; you said.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;What about them?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Will they be all right?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what I like to see,&rdquo; I said. &ldquo;You just died and your main concern is for your family. That&rsquo;s good stuff right there.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>You looked at me with fascination. To you, I didn&rsquo;t look like God. I just looked like some man. Or possibly a woman. Some vague authority figure, maybe. More of a grammar school teacher than the almighty.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t worry,&rdquo; I said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ll be fine. Your kids will remember you as perfect in every way. They didn&rsquo;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&rsquo;s any consolation, she&rsquo;ll feel very guilty for feeling relieved.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Oh,&rdquo; you said. &ldquo;So what happens now? Do I go to heaven or hell or something?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Neither,&rdquo; I said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ll be reincarnated.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Ah,&rdquo; you said. &ldquo;So the Hindus were right,&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;All religions are right in their own way,&rdquo; I said. &ldquo;Walk with me.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>You followed along as we strode through the void.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Where are we going?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Nowhere in particular,&rdquo; I said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just nice to walk while we talk.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;So what&rsquo;s the point, then?&rdquo; You asked. &ldquo;When I get reborn, I&rsquo;ll just be a blank slate, right? A baby. So all my experiences and everything I did in this life won&rsquo;t matter.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Not so!&rdquo; I said. &ldquo;You have within you all the knowledge and experiences of all your past lives. You just don&rsquo;t remember them right now.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>I stopped walking and took you by the shoulders. &ldquo;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&rsquo;s like sticking your finger in a glass of water to see if it&rsquo;s hot or cold. You put a tiny part of yourself into the vessel, and when you bring it back out, you&rsquo;ve gained all the experiences it had.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve been in a human for the last 48 years, so you haven&rsquo;t stretched out yet and felt the rest of your immense consciousness. If we hung out here for long enough, you&rsquo;d start remembering everything. But there&rsquo;s no point to doing that between each life.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;How many times have I been reincarnated, then?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Oh lots. Lots and lots. An in to lots of different lives.&rdquo; I said. &ldquo;This time around, you&rsquo;ll be a Chinese peasant girl in 540 AD.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Wait, what?&rdquo; You stammered. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re sending me back in time?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Well, I guess technically. Time, as you know it, only exists in your universe. Things are different where I come from.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Where you come from?&rdquo; You said.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Oh sure,&rdquo; I explained &ldquo;I come from somewhere. Somewhere else. And there are others like me. I know you&rsquo;ll want to know what it&rsquo;s like there, but honestly you wouldn&rsquo;t understand.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Oh,&rdquo; you said, a little let down. &ldquo;But wait. If I get reincarnated to other places in time, I could have interacted with myself at some point.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Sure. Happens all the time. And with both lives only aware of their own lifespan you don&rsquo;t even know it&rsquo;s happening.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;So what&rsquo;s the point of it all?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Seriously?&rdquo; I asked. &ldquo;Seriously? You&rsquo;re asking me for the meaning of life? Isn&rsquo;t that a little stereotypical?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Well it&rsquo;s a reasonable question,&rdquo; you persisted.<\/p>\n<p>I looked you in the eye. &ldquo;The meaning of life, the reason I made this whole universe, is for you to mature.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;You mean mankind? You want us to mature?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;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.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Just me? What about everyone else?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;There is no one else,&rdquo; I said. &ldquo;In this universe, there&rsquo;s just you and me.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>You stared blankly at me. &ldquo;But all the people on earth&hellip;&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;All you. Different incarnations of you.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Wait. I&rsquo;m everyone!?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Now you&rsquo;re getting it,&rdquo; I said, with a congratulatory slap on the back.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m every human being who ever lived?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Or who will ever live, yes.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m Abraham Lincoln?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;And you&rsquo;re John Wilkes Booth, too,&rdquo; I added.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m Hitler?&rdquo; You said, appalled.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;And you&rsquo;re the millions he killed.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m Jesus?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;And you&rsquo;re everyone who followed him.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>You fell silent.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Every time you victimized someone,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;you were victimizing yourself. Every act of kindness you&rsquo;ve done, you&rsquo;ve done to yourself. Every happy and sad moment ever experienced by any human was, or will be, experienced by you.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>You thought for a long time.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Why?&rdquo; You asked me. &ldquo;Why do all this?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Because someday, you will become like me. Because that&rsquo;s what you are. You&rsquo;re one of my kind. You&rsquo;re my child.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Whoa,&rdquo; you said, incredulous. &ldquo;You mean I&rsquo;m a god?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;No. Not yet. You&rsquo;re a fetus. You&rsquo;re still growing. Once you&rsquo;ve lived every human life throughout all time, you will have grown enough to be born.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;So the whole universe,&rdquo; you said, &ldquo;it&rsquo;s just&hellip;&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;An egg.&rdquo; I answered. &ldquo;Now it&rsquo;s time for you to move on to your next life.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>And I sent you on your way.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My daughter sent me this the other day and I wanted to share. The Egg &ndash; By Andy Weir You were on your way home when you died. 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&rsquo;s when you met me. &ldquo;What&hellip; what happened?&rdquo; You asked. &ldquo;Where am I?&rdquo; &ldquo;You died,&rdquo; I said, matter-of-factly. No point in mincing words. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[46],"class_list":["post-842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-odds-ends","tag-world-view"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/janeterickson.com\/spiritual-healing-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/janeterickson.com\/spiritual-healing-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/janeterickson.com\/spiritual-healing-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janeterickson.com\/spiritual-healing-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janeterickson.com\/spiritual-healing-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/janeterickson.com\/spiritual-healing-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/janeterickson.com\/spiritual-healing-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janeterickson.com\/spiritual-healing-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janeterickson.com\/spiritual-healing-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}