Had an old chopper crewman for a customer yesterday, said he used to jump out of choppers in the 'Nam and rescue victims of plane and chopper crashes (and load body bags).
He said most of this to a passenger, young, maybe in his late 30's, who tried to comprehend the fullness of his amazing service but couldn't really, as he said he 'hadn't been born yet'.
I, having been alive at the time of the Vietnam war, knew full well that that old soldier had been in the thick of some serious nastiness and I felt extremely honored to have been able to serve him. (I had a cousin in the 'Nam and my partner's brother had done two tours and lived to tell about it).
When I was just a lad, having been 'just born' not long before, I was fascinated with the American Eighth Air Force and studied all of their exploits during WWII. I felt an affinity for those crazy brave servicemen, though I hadn't been around, having been 'unborn' at the time. Why the draw? It was as if I had, at the time, only been able to see the little picture and was now seeing how the whole of the air war had played out. I still don't understand it. Very strange.
Hungover after a night dancing with English girls
Jon Robinson- Unsplash.com
If you don't believe in reincarnation, your only recourse is to then assume that before you were born, before you came out of the void somewhere and arrived for your first time here, that all that happened in the past had nothing whatsoever to do with you and you can watch or read about history passively.
You must also believe that from out of the void babies are blessed with mysterious talents and have proclivities for all sorts of things, these being merely happy accidents.
Furthermore, you must believe that you come in fresh, unburdened by any previous baggage. You have no karma to contend with.
As well, you also have only one single and solitary shot at life, so you can justify your behavior towards others by the viewpoint that everybody is out for themselves, so why not go for it?
I myself think I have been around so many times it's mind boggling. I have had many experiences and those lifetimes have been a progression in understanding how to operate in the world, this present one I am inhabiting, which in itself is an illusion, I'm told, as there is in actuality no time outside of the earth plane reference, no past or future but.......
....if you're not ready to go there, and want to think otherwise, then the concept of 'I wasn't born yet' could be your failsafe. If it makes you feel comfortable, then yes by all means.
You can shut out the nagging weirdness that way and turn a blind eye to child prodigies, idiot savants, and people that have passionate interests in pecular and obscure things that nobody else cares about. Life is just life, you say.
Family members don't come back time after time to experience playing different roles with each other, old friends with which to connect don't resurface, enemies don't rise again in some other guise to vex you, and soulmates don't come back around to haunt you.
I've had all four of those things happen in my life, and more. Still can't figure some of the people out that I've crossed paths with but I knew them from somewhere and somewhen, I'm sure of it. I'm not just talking about significant relationships here, these could be people I was with for only a short while. Maybe with those the connection was less or I'm not supposed to remember but even so, I can feel that there is something there. If you can't, you're missing the party, I daresay.
But, hey.....
.....you'll get there when you get there. It's all good. We've got all the time we will ever need and you get to play your own role(s) in the manner that fits you best.