Dan Plante wrote:
     
The parts and the whole. The components and the emergent property thereof.
She must have an unusual the-rapist; most of them, I find, need one themselves. 
"Ego dissolution". An apt term. It rubs me the right way ;-) What she describes 
sounds very familiar. The guys at work call me a chameleon, for similar reasons.
I'm curious; how does she rate her own progress to date?
Well, I forwarded the question to her, this was her reply:
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 12:47:20 -0800
From: lamato@activevoice.com
     This is the picture......
     
     A man surrounded by a pile of blocks, which he constantly examines, 
     catalogues, and rearranges. For each guest, he builds a different 
     structure around himself, modifying always to suit his situation. He 
     is in a contant state of flux, of establishing and re-establishing his 
     relationship to the universe. One day a guest comes to him who helps 
     him catalogue the mysterious and scary parts he hated to touch, to 
     show him how all these parts work together.  He continues to arrange 
     and rearrange, to discard the broken, useless blocks and to create new 
     more functional ones, until he finds the one configuration where all 
     the blocks fit together in perfect rhythm. The blocks have created a 
     wall, the wall has created a door. He sees clearly the relationship 
     between his finite and infinite self. The door swings freely, open to 
     all guests, he sits in the center, calmly dissolving each block.
     
     ........and that's my progress report.
--------------End Forwarded Message------------------
-Prof. Tim