Ronnie and Danielle

Years ago, when I was back home, I was going to a theatre party hosted by a man named Ronnie McIntyre-Fender. Ronnie ran a community theatre in Oak Ridge, TN and was a long haired screaming queen in an area of the country where being a screaming queen would get your teeth knocked out. If you were lucky.

But anyone who met Ronnie couldn't do anything other than fall in love with him.

I believe this was one of my first, if not my very first time meeting Ronnie and the producer of the show I was doing told me as we were walking up to Ronnie's door...

"Don't compliment anything in Ronnie's home. If you tell him you like something he owns, he will give it to you. Immediately. And he won't take no for an answer."

That strange little character trait of Ronnie's describes him completely. He gives freely. He loves boldly. He laughs loudly. He's got this whole "life" thing figured out.

It was meeting Ronnie that made me start believing in reincarnation. I have things in my life - - my fear of spiders, my knowledge of London the first time I was there, my attraction to 30's and 40's movies and music - - that compel me to believe I have lived before. I think we all go through many different lives so that we can learn and fully understand the lessons of life. It may take some souls a few more lifetimes than others, but eventually, each one of us becomes... well... we become Ronnie.

Just being around Ronnie, I knew that I was in the presence of a soul that was going to "go on" after he died. There is no need for him to be reincarnated after this life. He has learned all there is to learn. He's ready for the next, big adventure. Or heaven. Whatever that next step is.

Now, you may laugh at this, but this week, I realized that I have met another one of those souls that have learned life's lessons - - because she gave me an action figure.

One of the actors in my show, Danielle Brothers, was chatting with me about a cartoon that we both love - - The Tick- - and I mentioned that my favorite character on that show was a funny, third-level superhero named The Human Bullet.

The Human Bullet was a guy with a bullet-shaped helmet who jumped into a huge cannon at the first sign of trouble, shouted to his sidekick, "Fire me, boy!" and was then blasted towards the villain of the day. He was my favorite because after The Human Bullet was fired out of that cannon, you wouldn't see him for 10 minutes or so and then, in the middle of some random scene, you'd see The Human Bullet fly across the sky in the background and hit a building and then groan as he fell to the ground. A simple bit that made me belly laugh every single time I watched it.

Now, I didn't know that Danielle has a fun assortment of toys and action figures in one of the rooms of her home and one of those action figures was The Human Bullet. So yesterday, Danielle walks up to me with this action figure in a bag and says that she was so happy when I mentioned that I loved this particular character because she had it in her home and couldn't wait to give it to me.

The minute she handed it to me, I thought about Ronnie. Then, I thought about all of my interactions with Danielle and realized that I was acting alongside another one of those souls. A soul that will move on. A soul I can learn from.

If that's not the perfect way to start a new year - - being in the company of someone who understands life's lessons and can help me on my soul's journey - - then, I'm not sure what is.