I am the sum total of everything
that went before me,
of all I have been seen done,
of everything done-to-me.
I am everyone everything
whose being-in-the-world
affected was affected by mine.
I am anything that happens
after I've gone
which would not have happened
if I had not come.
Nor am I particularly exceptional
in this matter;
each "I", everyone,
contains a similar multitude.
I repeat for the last time:
to understand me,
you'll have to swallow a world."
- Salman Rushdie -
(art by John U. Abrahamson)