A wooden egg… why didn’t I think of that?

Where I come from, people will willingly fork over $20 for a two-ingredient dish consisting of bread and an avocado — which literally grow on trees around here (Southern California). So it’s hard to make fun of a $13 egg handcrafted from wood, brass, or stone that’s meant to serve as a reminder to chill the f--k out.

I mean, people once bought 1.5 million rocks at four dollars each from an enterprising genius named Gary Dahl. The Pet Rock, as it came to be known was little more than a rounded stone and a 32-page guide on how to care for it.

And you thought instructions on the back of shampoo were stupid.

The Thinking Egg, as it came to be called, is the product of Vancouver-based design firm Orijin Design Company. It’s meant to symbolize life, wealth, and promise. It’s a totem of sorts, a candy-sized figurehead meant to remind you to take a deep breath, and be present in the moment.

Or, as Orijin founder Oscar Bonilla puts it:

My to-do list never seemed to end. With each task I’d complete, 10 magically appeared. Text messages, phone calls, emails… I was just bombarded. I finally got to a point where I wanted something to remind me to just slow down: to wake up, to actually be present and aware of what I was doing.

Will a $13 egg do that? What, do I look like a guru? I don’t know. But what I do know is that more than 3,200 people have contributed to a campaign that so far has raised over $100,000.