The Creator of life was enduring great difficulty in convincing the soul to merge with a body, but the soul persistently refused. It was a young, free spirit in the burner, perpetually filled with questions. It continually complained, finding fault in everything, never settling, and always confused. Each time, it belittled the body it was given, claiming it never met the proper criteria—whether in age, color, gender, or race.
Before attempting human forms, the soul had experienced life as various insects and animals. It once lived as a butterfly, fluttering freely yet vulnerable to nature and predators. As a deer, it experienced the constant fear of being hunted. These experiences left the soul yearning for superiority and a sense of control, which it believed could only be achieved in a human form.
The creator nearly lost hope until he conceived an idea: allowing the soul to choose a borrowed sample body each day in order to find a suitable fit.
The soul initially chose the body of a young girl and ventured into the streets of a third-world country. Traffickers soon trapped her, selling her into a brothel. After spending a day in a sleazy cellar, the soul became fearful of everything—the night, its body, and even humans.
Upon completing the day, the soul returned to the creator, visibly shaken. It then requested the body of a young boy and was dispatched to the same streets. Just as he was about to play with his friends, he was forced to work in a nearby mine. Bewildered by the heavy tasks, he accidentally burned himself. With limited medical care, he was compelled to gather coal again. After laboring in the mine until midnight without food or nourishment, the boy collapsed.
The soul, now understanding that youth is filled with hardship without financial means, asked the creator for thirty days to determine which body it wished to inhabit permanently. Thus began its experimentation—becoming, in turn, a white, black, Asian, and Latin man, and similarly, a woman each day. It soon recognized that each day presented unique challenges. Privileges varied according to land and lineage. Not everyone had an easy life, and sorrow was persistent for all.
Being a woman was challenging almost all the time with no freedom, and being old was harder regardless of gender. In an older body, the soul had a hard time moving around, and other humans neglected it. There was little to no way to earn a living.
The soul also observed that older humans often harbored pessimism, much like those in late middle age. They regretted for not taking risks and neglecting health . However, in younger forms, the soul found it impossible to care for anything or anyone, not even itself, as it was perpetually chasing some deadline, whether for itself or its family.
And thus, the thirty days elapsed, and the soul returned to the creator, even more bewildered. It lamented, “Being human is tiring, filled with suffering and loneliness.”
It questioned, “Why do you insist on being human?” The creator, pointing to the other burners, declared, “You desired this!” With no further time to spare, the creator pushed the soul.
As the soul opened its eyes, it found itself in the midst of a ceremony of integration. It was now a robot, assigned to oversee humans in their homes. With a new command in the queue, it proceeded towards the human sleeping peacefully by the bed.