On February 04, 2000 at 21:35:45, Enigma wrote:
> At one point, I looked down through my side window at the snowplow. That image is burned into my memory with startling detail, because that was the point where I realized that I was going to die. A truck weighing several thousand pounds, with a big snowplow wider than the truck itself mounted in front, was less than a foot from my car door, and it was so close that I couldn't even see the front of the plow. All I could see was down at it, and the space between the plow and the truck. It was too late for the truck to turn, and it _still_ hadn't slowed down.
>
> Four very weird thoughts entered my head simultaneously. If it wasn't for these thoughts, I'm pretty certain I wouldn't mention this in the Rink forum. I've never thought more than one thought at a time (and even that's a challenge, sometimes :-), but these were my thoughts:
>
> * I'm definitely going to die.
> * If the angel between our vehicles stops the truck, I might live.
> * This car is going to be totaled, crumpled flat.
> * (in the back of my mind: I wonder how I'm going to phrase this incident when I post about it in Rinkworks.)
>
> [snip]
>
> Another point that bothered me was my thought about "the angel". I never saw an angel. I wasn't thinking about angels before the incident. But while it was happening, I was wondering if the angel was going to be able to stop the truck or not.

Hmm. You know, right now I'm reading a news article by a Montreal pastor who had a near-death experience (NDE). He chose to call it a "near-life" experience, however. In a fascinating description, he spoke of abruptly seeing -- at the moment of crisis -- two unseeable "presences" which could be interpreted as angels. That makes me wonder all the more about Enigma's incident with that angel thing. Charles Wesley once wrote, "Angels wher'er we go, attend our steps what'er betide,/ With watchful care their charge defend, and evil turn aside."

Heh. Okay, for the moment I'm going to make the assumption that angels might exist, that they're not hallucinations or optical illusions, and maybe they're even all around us, filling the air. So what would it take to be able to interact with one of these beings, outside of NDE?

I'm talking about "real" angels here... deep spiritual presences... and not the wings-with-halo popular imagery, or actresses with Irish lilts. ;-) Many people say they believe in God. I don't know how many would also agree that angels exist and might have interaction with us.