Jodi: Cool one. I've used that as part of my schtick for years. Inspired by our girl Shirl (that would be Shirley MacClaine (spelling? sorry)), who though quick to tell you of her past lives, was never a fruit-stand vendor in Paris in the odorous 1700s, or just a run-of-the-mill red-haired girl from Iowa with braids, an overbite and a library-assistant position (which I imagine is actually often an adventure). What's more, because she believes that one chooses her family members and that those individuals have thus been with you for centuries, those people were also princes, queens, happy, particularly sophisticated, beautiful geishas and rich poets. Her past lives, in turns out, are just another excuse/way to be self-aggrandizing.

By the law of averages, in a previous life, I was .... always on time.

HA! Jodi. I have thought this so many times. Everyone has an awesome past life.

I was definitely famous. And rich. And gorgeous. Feh. Just kidding. I was probably a little toadie or a eunech or something totally unimpressive.

Kim's right - we talk about this all the time. Unfortunately, in the pagan scene, you run into flakes all over the place. Everyone was royalty in Atlantis, for instance.

When I asked someone how it was so that everyone was, she replied, "We were so advanced that we had no need for servants."

I nearly died with laughter on that one. As someone once told me, to prove you were royalty in Atlantic, look at your palm. Go on, everyone do that now.

See how the lines on your palm make a big "M"? That means you were royalty.

Of course, everyone has that "M" on their palm. Ergo, you were a prince or princess!

I used to joke to these people that my spirit guide was named Argh-Thunk. He'd been a spear carrier in Atlantis, and that's the sounds made when he died . . .

When I was 14, I thought maybe I was someone (man or woman) in an earlier life who was about to get married, but died before the wedding. I don't know what brought on this. I was obessed with marriage and weddings that year, like I said before, I don't know what brought it on.

And if you remove the "ing" from descending and replace it with "ed," you'll have what I would have said if I wasn't an illiterate sod.

This is a semi-regular topic around here, and it's so true. You also get the people who were burned as witches during the Inquisition, were royalty in Atlantis, or are descending from the aliens who originally populated the Earth.

Me? I was a mosquito in my last life. Whiny and irritating. Oh, wait. That's this life.

Well, if I did have a past life, then I must have been the village idiot. Why else would I have come back for another go'round.

Either that or I was tricked by Merlin into believing that it gets better each time. In which case I really don't want to know what it was like the last time.

It's simple really. Most people find it hard to remember what they did yesterday, let alone what they did in their past life. And so, it is only those who had a really interesting past life that can actually remember it. Oh hum

For the same reason that, were you to visit every Catholic Church that had a reliquary, you would probably find enough pieces of the True Cross to reforest Michigan.

Everyone wants to think that they're a special snowflake, even if they can't remember it because it happened, you know, a couple hundred and/or thousand years ago.

Me, I'm perfectly happy to think that if reincarnation is the straight dope, that I was Roman Soldier #5,414 in the credits.

Or would that be MMMMMCCCXIV?

What's wrong with being from Flatbush, huh? And the wife doesn't seem to mind being Mrs. Plotnick.

Well, I was Cindy, and let me tell you, the woman's a raging bitch. Never holds the door for people, never gives change to homeless guys, lousy tipper. Feh.