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Hooray! I'm a reincarnation!
Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2004 7:41 am
by nick
Dear Companions ---This year on holiday in Romania I was leisurely reading Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything", a popular introduction to modern science. Now Bryson writes (page 176):"Atoms, in short, are very abundant. They are so fantastically durable. Because they are so long lived, atoms really get around. Every atom you possess has almost certainly [...] been part of millions of organisms on its way to becoming you. We are each so atomically numerous and so vigorously recycled at death that a significant number of our atoms --- up to a billion for each of us, it has been suggested --- probably once belonged to William Shakespeare. A billion more each came from Buddha and Gengiz Kahn and Beethoven, and any historical figure you care to name. (The personages have to be historical, apparently, as it takes the atoms some decades to become thoroughly distributed; however much you may wish it, you are not yet one with Elvis Presley.)"End quote.So this solves it: we all share something like one billion atoms with Alexander. We are all his reincarnation after all.Great fun!Regards ---Nick
Re: Hooray! I'm a reincarnation!
Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2004 9:00 am
by Taphoi
Not a new idea I'm afraid:-HAMLET: To what base use we may return, Horatio! Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander, till he find it stopping a bung-hole?
HORATIO: GÇÖTwere to consider too curiously, to consider so.
HAMLET: No, faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither with modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it: as thus; Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth into dust; the dust is earth; of earth we make loam; and why of that loam, whereto he was converted, might they not stop a beer-barrel?
William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act V, Scene I But what if the body is still intact somewhere?
Re: Hooray! I'm a reincarnation!
Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2004 9:04 am
by Halil
Hello NickAnd here was I thinking that you wanted to be one with Darius, and it was Alexander all along (smile).Just joking, of course. CheersHalil
Re: Hooray! I'm a reincarnation!
Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2004 2:25 pm
by ruthaki
Could'st I then be part of a reincarnated Olympias or Roxana? Now there's a powerful (scary) thought!
Re: Hooray! I'm a reincarnation!
Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 10:27 am
by smittysmitty
What's even scarier is we might be reincarnates of Bucephalus!
Re: Hooray! I'm a reincarnation!
Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 12:26 pm
by marcus
I want to be a reincarnation of Philip - I reckon he had a pretty fun time, what with his eight wives, loads of booze, lots of silver, and plenty of rushing about on battlefields. OK, so he lost and eye, damaged his leg, and got stabbed to death ... but a small price to pay for being Le Grand Fromage of the Hellenic World ...Marcus
Re: Hooray! I'm a reincarnation!
Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 4:09 pm
by Nax
Hey man, take it back far enough and we're all gods, too!!! Yay!!!