Ever wondered what comes after death? Hark! The Egg answers the age-old mystery… kind of. The Egg by Andy Weir is a short story about a man who dies and meets God, but as it goes with any story, the literal is the least important aspect here. So don’t get hung up on decorative details like the fact that God is non-binary or that they say the Hindus were most correct in their beliefs. It’s the core metaphorical themes in this story that we ought to learn from.
Luckily, the story was beautifully animated by Kursgestagt for your viewing pleasure. Give it a watch and I’ll share with you what I’ve gleaned from the man’s post-mortem chat with God.
Too Long, Didn’t Watch: A man Dies and asks God what the meaning of life is. God explains to him that not only is reincarnation real but also that we get reincarnated into different time periods. Does that then mean it’s possible to be reincarnated into the same time period as another incarnation of yourself? The answer is “Yes, it happens all the time.” God explains matter-of-factly that every single person on Earth who ever was or ever will be is just a different incarnation of you. The meaning of life is to experience every possible human experience in all of time. Then you will have grown enough to be a god yourself. The whole universe was made just for you to grow and mature. Thus the universe as we know it, is just an egg.
So I am everyone. What are we to make of this? At the very least we must understand that the golden rule is much more than a nursery rhyme. You, me, and everyone else on this planet are just different iterations of one soul. Many people believe that the duality of humankind exists because humanity is made up of two camps — good people and bad people. But from The Egg, we learn that the duality of humankind exists because there is the capacity for both good and bad within every one of us. We are Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth, Jesus and his disciples, etc. You — yes, you — have the same propensity to be evil as you do to be good. So what then, is the deciding factor of turning out mostly “good” or “bad”? The only difference between us is the set of life circumstances we happen to have been born into.
After searching for Weir’s inspiration for the story, I found that he said, “It originally came up because I was having an argument with my aunt. I thought her point of view was ridiculous. Then, later I figured if I had lived her life, her opinion would make perfect sense to me. That got me thinking about a system where people live each others’ lives.”
Please understand that all of us, whether righteous or morally depraved, are made that way by our environment and life experience, which we cannot choose. Thieves, murderers, and scammers are not evil by nature but rather robbed of the correct nurturing from society. Heroes, saints, and do-gooders do not come out of the womb righteous but are a testament to the fruits of a supporting society in which each person’s needs are met. Allow this mindset to influence you to give people grace where you can by accepting the idea that everyone you meet is just a product of their environment. Personally, this is a salve when I feel like I have lost all of my faith in humanity. It reminds me that everyone is doing their best with the cards they've been dealt.
Furthermore, on the circular (egg-ular?) nature of humanity illustrated by The Egg, I firmly believe that we see others through the lens of our own aspirations and insecurities. When you take a liking to someone, it's because you relate to them in some way or aspire to be like them. Similarly, the people we feel deep hatred or even pity for are those that reflect traits that we despise in ourselves. To borrow from Don Miguel Ruiz’s "The Four Agreements," we are all mirrors, and when we see the beauty in others, it's really a reflection of ourselves. I would argue that the beauty we see in anything is a reflection of ourselves.
We are all inextricably interconnected in that way. The reason we can't help but cry when we see others cry is the same reasoning behind MLK's "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." It's because beyond all of your assumptions about people, circumstances, and the complexities of the world, deep down, in the central fiber of your being your intuition knows that we are all the same. We all want to be happy, feel fulfilled, and be loved. Through that, we're far more similar than we are different.
“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Perfectly write, Ariel!