As a kid I loved reading. My parents used to tease me because I was the only twelve year old who asked for books on her birthday. Books and the occasional french dictionary. Don't ask. By the time college came around I had lots to read for school and less time to read for pleasure. With the exception of the Harry Potter and Twilight books I haven't been really hooked on any series the past 10 years. Quite a literary drop, if you consider that Dickens was my favorite during my teens.
The thing that wrapped me up so much in these magical books was the world they created. I am not a fan of vampires, in the brooding, blood sucking sense of the word. But what struck me in the last book witch-vampire saga was the description of a vampires many lives, particularly how they fake their death and then take new identities so that they can start over. And then, because they live for hundreds or even thousands of years, vampires evolve with the thinking and "humanity" of the time. This last book shows us how a vampire's sense of right and wrong evolves over "lifetimes." In this novel - A Discovery of Witches - the leading vampire tells his human girlfriend that he wouldn't trust the 500 year old version of himself with her. Maybe back then he wasn't a vegetarian! Vampires also have long lists of ex-girlfriends, wives, dramas, excitement, etc. Talk about emotional baggage!
This got me thinking about the similarity between a vampire's many identities and our own soul path. If you believe in reincarnation, it is entirely possible that we've had as many past lives as these fictional vampires. The only difference is that we are only aware of our current incarnation. Our eternal soul is a blessing, and it helps us out by giving us a clean slate every time we start over. This train of thought was really random, just got me thinking that we've all done things we aren't proud of in this lifetime, we're lucky not to have to answer for all of the things we did in other lifetimes (though I suppose on some level, karma is a #$%@).