A guy the other day – I eat at this cafeteria, I talk to a lot of nutty guys – This guy told me we were eggs. All people. He said people are eggs. Said we had to be careful not to bang up against each other too hard. Crack our shells, never be any use again. aid we were eggs. Individuals. We had to keep separate, private. He was very protective of his shell.
He said nobody ever knows what the other guy is thinking. We all got about ten tracks going at onece, nobody every knows what's going down any given track at any given moment. So we never can really communicate. As I'm talking to you on track number three, over on track five I might be thinking about… Oh, any number of things. And when I think you're listening to me, what are you really thinking?
I told him he's paranoid. Ought not to worry too much about being understood. Ought to work at it. We… Got our work cut out for us, don't we? It's all right there in his analogy, ain't it? What good is an egg? Gotta be hatched or boiled or beat up into something like a lot of other eggs. Then you're cookin'.
I told him he ought not to be too afraid of getting' his yolk broke.
from "Talley's Folly"
by Lanford Wilson