365 Project: Day 64

There are so many theories about what happens to us after death. Some believe nothing, that death is the end of us. Some believe reincarnation. Some believe we go to heaven or hell. Really, who knows? If you've never died before, then I guess there's no way of knowing for sure.

I watched a movie a few days ago and the characters were talking about reincarnation. I thought about it for a while. The idea that you have many lives to live over time fascinates me. Imagine how many people you could be or how many different kinds of life you could have. The possibilities are endless.

The thing about reincarnation is that people are not aware of what happened in their previous lives. If you could know that you lived before and will live again, would you live this life differently? Henry Ford believed in reincarnation and he made a very interesting point.

He said, "It (reincarnation) seems a most reasonable philosophy and explains many things. No, I have no desire to know what, or who I was once; or what, or who, I shall be in the ages to come. This belief in immortality makes present living the more attractive. It gives you all the time there is."

If reincarnation is real, there is so much to wonder about. When is a soul born? How and why is a new soul created? Is there an ending point where the soul will no longer reincarnate? What happens to the soul then? How is it decided who or what you will reincarnate as? I have an endless list of questions that have no answers or explanations.

Jack London said, "I did not begin when I was born, nor when I was conceived. I have been growing, developing, through incalculable myriads of millenniums...All my previous selves have their voices, echoes, promptings in me...Oh, incalculable times I again shall be born."

Some think its possible to be reincarnated as something other than a human. I've given this some thought and if I were to be reincarnated as something non-human, I think I'd like to be a bird. Not just any bird though, a migratory bird. Maybe a duck. A duck can walk if it choses, but it can also swim and fly. I love the water and wouldn't it be so amazing to fly? Ducks migrate south for the winter, so you get to travel and you avoid winter every year. You'd always have friends because ducks tend to stay in a flock. Plus, if you are a duck that lives in a park, people feed you all day. Then I thought, I'd rather not be an animal who has an entire hunting season dedicated to it. Duck Season would not be a pleasant time of year and I don't like the idea of being shot or eaten. So maybe a migratory bird, something similar to a duck, that no one wants to kill.

If you could be reincarnated as anything, what would you want to be and why?