Personal Statement

Personal Statement

Monday, January 10, 2011

Kid Stuff: When Someone Dies, They Die

From the prolific pen of the six year-old comes this piece, titled, “When someone dies, they die.”


Yes, the illustration features someone about to get shot with a comically oversized bullet. You can’t make this stuff up, people.

Not shown here – the companion piece, “Find me, and I will tell you where I am.” I can’t even begin to wrap my brain around that one.

Parker James fancies himself a philosopher. Well, that’s one of his many characters, anyway. And Philosopher PJ is quite convinced that when someone dies, they don’t stay dead for long. Quite the contrary. Not only is he 100% sure that reincarnation is a real phenomenon, he is 100% sure that it has happened to him, nine times. And, while he has some recall of the details of his past lives – being a boy – he has total recall of the details of his deaths. “I was run over by a car, poisoned, and shot in the head. When I was a knight, I fought a dragon – and I LOST. Another time, I went into the water and was eaten by a great white. In another life, I jumped into a lake, and piranhas got me. I got caught in a tornado, and when I hit the ground my head broke open. And this one was VERY weird – I was a zookeeper, and I had to take care of a lion, and it ate me for dinner.”

When asked how he remembers all of this, he will tell you that, “Every time I get a new life, I ask God to give me my same brain, so I will remember stuff. AND HE DOES.”

PJ has already submitted a request that, in his eleventh life, he come back as “a Chinese dude. Because, Mom, I think I’d like to learn ping-pong.”

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