The Last Repetition September 4th, 2012 I once believed human beings lived the same exact life

again and again. This belief arose after seven middle schoolers were killed in a car accident in Millington, Tennessee. It was early in the morning on Sunday February 29th, 2004. Michael Fradella, fifteen, had a learners permit and his fathers keys to a black Mazda Protege. While his parents were asleep, he snuck the Protg out of the driveway and onto a path of darkness. Sometime later, he picked up thirteen year olds, Trey Hannah, Samantha Stawizynski, Crystal Smith, Jessica Wallace, Lauren Sutherland, as well as Eric Sansone, fourteen. Their joyride ended on an isolated road when the Protege went airborne and hit a tree. These little people died at the scene. It was a tragedy. They werent supposed to die at such an early age. I didnt know them, I lived twenty miles away in Memphis, but I was stricken with grief from their loss none the less. Thinking about their deaths, I began to think about immortality. What if death was not the end? What if we had the chance to do it all over again? Back then, I wasnt a believer in Jesus Christ. I figured he was a myth like most of the Old and New Testaments. I wanted a plausible afterlife, and meeting a homecoming Jesus near pearly gates was not it. So I began to devise of other ways we could cheat death and misery. Weve heard it before: Life is not fair. The truth is: Life is not fair. If you live in the West, or someplace like Japan, there is a great chance you live a good, or decent, life. Most humans (which, if I had to guess, I would put the number at nearly two hundred billion) have not lived great, wholesome lives. They have suffered inconsiderably. Black Africans, Indians, and Chinese are suffering today. And they make up half of the worlds population. If youre part of the less than 1 percent who has enjoyed life immensely, you wouldnt mind living the same life for eternity. It would beat oblivion, yes? When I came up with the idea (which, unknown to me at the time, Friedrich Nietzsche thought up long before I did, what he called eternal recurrence), I hoped it was reality. Then I gave it more of my mind. No, I thought, that isnt right. Why should most of us, the 99 percent, suffer until the end of time? Imagine a black mother who is raped and beaten unmercifully until she is a grown adult and then she is put to death in the most horrible fashion. Is it fair for her to live that life forever? No. You would confine

her to hell. If youre Donald Trump, eternal recurrence sounds wonderful. If youre most of humanity, you'd rather write RIP on your last tombstone pizza. For Trey, Michael, Samantha, Crystal, Jessica, Lauren, Eric, and the rest of mankind, if heaven is not in the works, I pray that you rest in eternal peace. Amen.