The other night at the ER my mother decided we needed to have a deep, religious conversation while I was trying to stop my finger from bleeding all over the place. The conversation was sparked by my mother's surprise at my answer to the nurse's question: what religion are you? I said "agnostic", because I am, and my mother knows this- but for some reason at 2am she decided to get upset about it.

We got into this big disagreement about whether or not there is an afterlife. My mother said there is and I said that believing in an afterlife was for people who fear that this world is all we get. She said people who believe in an afterlife have a harder time on this earth because they have to be fearful that God will condemn them for their actions. Trying to be open-minded I told her that I considered a heaven or a hell as an option, the same way I consider reincarnation and a bunch of other things an option. The conversation ended when the doctor called me in to get sewn up.

I was reading this fabulous book today called "The Essential Rumi" which was written by a brilliant man in the mid 1200's. He wrote something that reminded me very much of my mother trying to convince me there is an afterlife.

"Think how it is to have a conversation with an embryo. You might say, "The world outside is vast and intricate. There are wheatfields and mountain passes, and orchards in bloom." You ask the embryo why he or she stays cooped up in the dark with eyes closed. Listen to the answer. The embryo would say:

There is no "other world." I only know what I've experienced. You must be hallucinating."

2001-05-13, 8:30 p.m.
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