My scheduled Lenten blog posting is interrupted once more by a vivid dream from which I have just woken up. I am a five-year-old boy, with a twin (non-identical) sister. Our parents are extremely wealthy and live in what feels like Tasmania or New Zealand. Southern Hemisphere, Anglophone, temperate climate. We live on a vast estate, built in the style of a faux Edwardian country house with plenty of outbuildings. Architecturally, it reminds me of a cross between Banbury market place and Bicester outlet shopping village, but all of this is owned by one family. (I cannot tell whether this is inherited wealth or whether our father was a newly minted tech billionaire).
My sister and I have tutors. We are being inculcated into the knowledge that our destiny is to become part of a group that rules over mankind with the goal of making the world a better place for mankind, and indeed, for the planetary ecosystem. A heavy burden for small children to be aware of.
It is the second half of the 21st century and global depopulation has become a challenge, though resource scarcity is now no longer a worry. My sister and I have everything of the best quality. We have just got new wellingtons to wear in the garden, having outgrown our old ones. They come from Sweden or Norway and the label, the guarantee and information card is in a Scandinavian language which gives my sister great amusement to read out aloud.
It is meditation time. We sit cross legged on the ground, and a tutor begins the session. We are told to stop giggling, to calm ourselves, and to focus on the future.
We are constantly reminded by our tutors of our mission. We must stay in the background, working anonymously to influence global outcomes. We must stay humble; we must understand how societies function and strive to improve them. This seems daunting to small children. We are assured that our immense family wealth is needed to make the world better, to reduce human suffering, to prevent the degradation of the environment. We are constantly told this story. This is why our family wealth shouldn't be taxed and why it is our duty to hold on to as much as possible.
********
How did we get here? My sister and I knew each other from our past lives, in 20th century England. One day, as ageless entities, neither young nor old, we meet in the lobby of an impressive corporate HQ building, very modern and well appointed. It could be London, Paris or New York. We are immediately ushered up a short flight of steps into a claustrophobically small lift, barely large enough for two passengers. The golden doors slide shut and the lift starts to rise. I fear that this could be a trap. The lift reaches the top, and the scene described above begins to unfold...
The fact that we know each other in this life is somehow important to our mission in the next, the dream informs me.
As five-year-olds, we are saddled with the knowledge of the great weight of duty and responsibility that lies ahead of us. Could we not have more carefree lives like other children that we briefly see from our car as we are whisked from one compound to another? No. This is meant to be.
Of course, now I have opened this particular box and observed what's inside, thus collapsing the wave function, this particular outcome has been rendered void in this timeline. In an adjacent parallel universe, however, it remains a possibility...
Three weeks to Easter Sunday.
Lent 2025: day 26
The End of Time
Lent 2024: day 26
Understanding the esoteric
(In which I dream of the Random Number Veneration Generator)
Lent 2023, day 26
The Ghost in the Machine
Lent 2022: day 26
The End of Times
Lent 2021: day 26
Physical Immortality
Lent 2020: Day 26
Intimations of Immortality
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