Rule #86

"There are certain rules in this world that we must abide by. We don’t always agree with them, and they rarely agree with us, but if we are to survive to see tomorrow, we need to place our personal feelings aside and just accept things for what they are.

Take rule #86, for instance.

Rule #86 states that every time someone speaks your name, it creates a duplicate of you.

Consider that.

Every time your parents ever scolded you using your full name, they’ve given birth to another you. Every time someone at the doctor’s office told you the doctor could see you now, somewhere in the world, another. Every time a lover cried it out in a fit of passion… another.

Think about that. Think about this thing you take for granted. This beautiful gift given to you by your ancestors and forefathers. Your name.

Imagine living in a world where your name was a curse instead of a gift.

“That’s my name, don’t wear it out.”

You people are so funny.

For us, your name wears *you* out. It hunts you down. It fights for survival. Tries to steal your life to save its own. After all, who is the real you when you all bear the same name?

But then… those are the rules. Just one more in an endless stream of governing laws that warp and disrupt and diminish our world, little by little, piece by piece, one name at a time.

I just wanted you to think about that. Remember it every time you sign a check. When you introduce yourself. When you gift your newborn child.

Remember rule #86, and remember that we are watching you, and we are waiting.

Every world has rules. You test the boundaries of yours every day. Someday you will find a way to break those rules, and in doing so, you will let us in.

And then you will have to learn the rules all over again."