There is an old Jewish myth that the soul, before plunging down
into the physical universe at the moment when sperm pierces egg,
is granted complete foreknowledge of the life it is about to
enter. Not only foreknowledge, but since, for the soul, knowledge
and power are one, it is granted complete choice. And since the
soul is one with the will of God, God's creation and its creation
are one. It sees everything displayed before it, as if on a movie
screen, but collapsed into a timeless less-than-a-moment, and it
chooses everything: a mother and father whose giant shadows it
will have to grow beyond if it can, like a plant reaching for
the light; a set of core puzzles that may take it a lifetime to
resolve; sufferings and joys, opinions, obstacles, illnesses,
triumphs, disasters, swirls of events that seem at first or
tenth glance trivial or accidental; a particular era and country,
with their collective delusions; lovers and children; enemies,
friends; the circumstances, terrifed or serene, of a death;
all of them potential means of becoming mature, that is to say,
transparent. And in order to make things more interesting, a
split second before sperm pierces egg an angel gives the soul a
smack on its non-physical mouth, and it forgets everything.
Stephen Mitchell
janet paterson - 51 now /41 dx /37 onset - almonte/ontario/canada
http://www.newcountry.nu/pd/members/janet/index.htm
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