"I depart from life as from an inn, not Eventually there comes a time when we are faced with mysteries so profound that we are constrained to ask WHY? WHY did this happen to me? WHY am I in this condition? WHY am I compelled to do things not to my liking? WHY is my life cast among people for whom I have no affinity? WHY the frustration, disappointment, loss, separation and death of loved ones? In order to understand some of these conditions it is frequently necessary to go far back into our life; for many of our current perplexities and calamities are traceable to the past. Either early in life, or even before this life, many of the conditions now plaguing and puzzling us were set into motion. Not all of us come "trailing clouds of glory," but bring instead quantities of unfinished business much of it not to our liking. Upon its arrival here, the stage is all set for the immortal actor. He has been attracted to the geniuses and early show unmistakable signs of precocity and talent. Others give evidence that they are not entirely unacquainted with perversity and evil. And yet when parents find a genius or a black-sheep in their flock they exclaim: "I can't understand it!" The theory of heredity is true so far as it goes, but it doesn't go nearly far enough, for what we receive from our ancestors is only a fraction of what we are, and what we will become. So far as mental, moral and spiritual acquirements are concerned we inherit ourselves. Every soul is an integral center from which he operates and exercises selection and choice, and is not at the mercy of his predecessors. Children derive from their parents a physical organism soundUNFINISHED BUSINESS
as from a home."—CICERO.