I am in a walkway, there is a train station nearby. Or maybe it is a bus station. The sheltered road, in which the bus/trains come and go to pick up and drop off passengers is to my right. Many green trees and bushes are in bloom. The weather is nice, somewhat warm, with just a light breeze. On the benches awaiting arrivals and departures, many people wait. There is an immensity of people there, and I marvel at the vastness of their numbers, thinking birth control should be practiced more often.

Julia is with me. I don't know why we are there at that particular time, but I remember thinking, "There's just too many people in the world. The world can not support them all."

And just then a woman in her thirties, blond of hair, wielding a gun commands everyone's attention with that gun. She declares the thoughts I have just been thinking, "There's just too many people in the world. The world can not support them all." But then she adds, as she waves her gun, "And I'm going to do something about it. I'm going to thin this overpopulation out." I can tell she truly believes in the rightness of her cause. She is seeing a problem and a solution. She points her gun to me, and demands, "Justify your existence. Tell me why I shouldn't kill you. Give me a good reason!"

I am shocked nearly speechless. Not completely speechless, for then she would shoot, however, and I found myself uttering the quickest words that came to me. "Because I create things of beauty and I want to share them with the world. I want to share them so that others can know beauty, too. I want to make the world a better place." She moves the gun from direct aim at my head, sufficiently satisfied at the answer, I look to where I may run, grabbing Julia, but then I wake up, still feeling shocked.

If someone came to you with a question like that, and an instrument of death, how would YOU answer?

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