The Reincarnation of Mr. Ring

Upon his death, the moth was called before the Reincarnation Council to receive his new life form.

As the moth entered the room, the Grand Council leader, smiled and said: "Welcome moth. Before we begin let me set you at ease - you are not here to be punished. You have been brought here because you were eaten by a praying mantis and now need a new life form. The Fate Keeper has selected a new life form for you. Our role is to present it to you.

"We are granting you the temporary ability understand our questions and to reply to them using two words: either Yes or No. We do this because we do not know what your reassignment is and words are used by other more complex creatures and something you may not need knowledge of in your new life. Do you understand?"

"Yes", replied the moth.

"Let us begin, then. It says here you were eaten by a praying mantis. I know it must have been painful for you, but on the other hand a delicious experience for the praying mantis. It is the way of all life. We sometimes give; we sometimes take. Do you agree?"

"Yes", replied the moth.

With that the Grand Council Leader opened the envelope and pulled out the sheet of paper inside.

"Hmm – It says here you are to be reincarnated as a human, effective tomorrow. However, there is one restriction: You must never drive a car at night. You may be the passenger, but never the driver. Is that clear?"

"Yes", replied the moth.

"Congratulations - Tonight, you will fall asleep as a moth…tomorrow, you will awaken as a human. I wish you good fortune in your next life. Oh, one last thing, in case you were wondering, over time you will remember almost nothing your life as a moth."

"Thank you", replied the moth. (Based on his new life assignment, the moth was granted additional vocabulary)

"Consider this hearing adjourned" – said the Grand Council Leader.

Now, generally, when human containers are involved, reincarnation occurs at the conception level so as not to displace a pre-existing life force.

However, under one very rare circumstance, the reincarnation process can go awry. Specifically, when a human has a near-death experience and its life force leaves its body at the same time a reincarnate is in the vicinity. If the human life force strays too far from the body and a Reincarnation Candidate is within closer range, then the Reincarnation Candidate will displace the original body spirit.

This is exactly what happened to the moth during his Reincarnation experience. Eighty-four ear old Mr. Ring, who was half-way through his knee replacement operation, suddenly flat-lined; And as the surgical team tried to resuscitate him, Mr. Ring's life force, no longer hobbled by physically bad knees, left his body and was joyfully and painlessly dancing around the operating room like a ten year old boy – and it just so happened that the moth was passing through at the precise moment the surgical team successfully resuscitated Mr. Ring and was reabsorbed by the body instead of the original life force.

What happens to the displaced life forces? Well, without actually having bodies to inhabit, they become non-entities and cannot reincarnate; and unfortunately, they simply turn to dust or lint. Their remains remains can be found under beds, in the form of dust bunnies, or in dryer lint traps. Fortunately, their disintegration is painless.

As for Mr. Ring, he pulled through successfully, completed his physical therapy, and was soon walking painlessly around on his new knees. He was identical to the old Mr. Ring except for two peculiar differences: he now insisted on using only wool blankets, wool scarves, wool shirts - anything wool in place of cotton or synthetics and he refused to drive his car at night. The latter idiosyncrasy caused the most grief for he would sometimes pick up one of his buddies in the morning but decline to drive them home once it was dark.

"You'll just have to spend the night", he would say. "I'll take you back first thing in the mooring."

Looking back in disbelief, the friend would say: "Frank," I hope you're joking. I haven't brought a change of clothes. Besides, my wife is waiting."

"I'm sorry," he would reply, "Next time it might be better if you took your own car."

"Drive! Frank, you know I don't drive. You old jackass, there won't be a next time. I'll walk."

One by one, Frank lost all of his friends until one night, the coldest night of the winter, he grew so lonely that he decided he would drive to Bill's house. Yes, Bill's house – he thought to himself – Bill's house is just five miles down the highway – a two minute ride.

So Frank put on his wool shirt, wool pants, heavy wool coat, wool scarf, wool cap, and finally his wool mittens; stepped outside into the cold winter night, got into his car, turned the key, and started the engine. He let it run for a few minutes, then drove down his driveway and headed for the main highway.

This will be a quick ride - he thought – no traffic ahead.

About half-way to Bill's house, in the opposite lane, the pin point lights of a tractor trailer were headed in Frank's direction. At first, he paid them no attention, but as they grew closer, he found them to be relaxing almost hypnotic. And as they approached, he suddenly turned his car into the oncoming cab of the tractor trailer. Frank's small car was no match for a head on with a highway heavy weight and crumpled against the big rigs grill like a bug on a windshield.

The truck driver was knocked unconscious and was taken away in the first ambulance. As the police and the ETs frantically pried open the driver's side door of Frank's car they found only the woolen clothing he had been wearing – but no body.

"What's that – something moved on the mat?" said one of the ETs -"Shine your torch over there."

"It's nothing – only a dead moth."