Reputations Are Shaped Not By Facts But

A Fondness For Martyrdom, Especially Of The Verbal Variety, Is Common To The Young.

Humor Is An Excellent Method Of Keeping A Tight Rein On Unproductive Displays Of Emotion.

Everything Has Happened Before - Not Once, But Over And Over Again. We May Not Be Able To Solve Our Problems Through What Are Pompously Called "the Lessons Of History," But At Least We Should Be Able To Recognize The Issues And Perhaps Avoid Some Of The Solutions That Have Failed In The Past. And We Can Take Heart In Our Own Dilemma By Realizing That Other People In Other Times Have Survived Worse.

Who Are We Really? Combinations Of Common Chemicals That Perform Mechanical Actions For A Few Years Before Crumbling Back Into The Original Components? Fresh New Souls, Drawn At Random For Some Celestial Cupboard Where God Keeps An Unending Supply?or The Same Soul, Immortal And Eternal, Refurbished And Reused Through Endless Lives, By That Thrifty Housekeeper? In Her Wisdom And Benevolence She Wipes Off The Memory Slates, As Part Of The Cleaning Process, Because If We Could Remember All The Things We Have Experienced In Earlier Lives, We Might Object To Risking It Again.

I Knew The Answer, And--of Course--so Did Ramses. He Has Superb Breath Control And Always Gets In Ahead Of Me.