Molly ran into the old (German?) woman before our meeting last Tuesday. Somewhere around the Foreign Languages building, the old Mother was squinting at one of our posters wrapped around a lampost, obviously lost. "Can I help you find something?" Molly asked her. "I'm looking for Old Chem," the old Mother said. Molly pointed her in the right direction and both went their separate ways. A few minutes later, Molly arrived at the SKS meeting in 119 Old Chem to find the old woman already there. Molly, being the affable soul she is, sat down to talk with her.

"At age 23," old Mother said, "my life came apart."

Then the meeting started, and Molly didn't get to hear the rest of the story.

During the meeting, the old woman said something that really struck me, about the bridge that all of us are on. Clutching her white purse, leaning forward just a little, and speaking in that unidentifiable European accent, she told us, "There is Eden, there is the world of the everyday, and there is the bridge between the two. All of you are at the threshold of that bridge, getting ready to cross. But some people...me, I am an old woman now. Some people get stuck on that bridge in between for the rest of their lives."

Uhf. That hit me right in the stomach, much harder than even my karate master's punches.

Statistically, I have a much better chance of getting stuck on that bridge than making it back to Eden.

"Where did you come from, baby dear?"
"Out of Everywhere, and into here."

..how to get back...?
...who will I be at 85...?
...what if... what if... what if...?

I only have one mantra that ever seems reasonable: "one by one by one by one"

Rachel