Practically Spiritual.

Destiny versus Free Will: Round One

Free will is a golden thread running through the frozen matrix of fixed events. - Robert Heinlein

Like The Hulk versus Superman, the question of Destiny versus Free Will may never be truly resolved. Philosophers might tire of it, but whether we are "meant to be" with a certain hellborn boyfriend or if a classmate was "supposed" to have succumbed to cystic fibrosis are vital questions.

Sometimes while staring at cards spread over someone's kitchen table, I'll get a strong sense of "rightness" about a client's situation. But it's difficult to transmit my sense of Celebrate, your father's Oxycontin addiction is part of his divine life plan! to a worried client.

Liber Panton: The Book of the World

My husband and I are thinking of having a baby. It's odd how the world shrinks down when you reach this point in life. I'm not even pregnant -- for all I know, I could be stuffed with old newspaper where my womb is supposed to be -- but already I feel myself boring people with Baby Talk.

Half the advice columns in the world are filled with complaints about baby-crazy women or their berserker little sisters, the Bridezillas. And here I am, becoming one. But I can't help it. It's like when I got a cell phone -- I became one of those awful people who talked on it everywhere. This is what the Buddhists mean by samsara, the cycle of suffering. You don't mean to get swept up in it, but you do.

Anyway, so like one does at this point in life, I've been seeing a lot of doctors. One doctor gave me advice on what to eat and what not to (a distinction I've never respected before). Among other things, he suggested walnuts to help the baby's brain develop.

I was delighted. "Oh! Of course walnuts would be good for brains. Because walnuts look like brains."