by Frances Anderson

Created on: March 25, 2007   Last Updated: May 08, 2007

The soul can be described in many different ways. A soul can be described as a kind of fish that can be eaten by those who don't spell well, or even the bottom of the shoe by others.

But for those persons who take this subject seriously, a soul is the part of the body that allows us to express ourselves in a manner which makes us human, rather than crocodile, chimpanzee, or dog. While many people confuse the idea of soul and spirit, they are definitely not the same, nor will they ever be. The spirit is the part of the body that is taken into the afterlife, rather than the soul.

All of us have a soul, as do animals. The soul is the construct of our personality, a conglomeration of our likes, dislikes, our wants, our desires and our selves. We may say that a jazz musician has "soul" or watch the "Soul Train" on television. All we are truly doing is imparting a piece of our soul upon another. One can be soul-mates with another person, and still not share intimate contact.

You can sell your soul to the devil; you can find soul on the radio. You can say someone is/was/has a gentle soul. But what are you really expressing? Are you saying that the soul of the person defines the presentation of who that person is, or are you saying that the presentation that is revealed is actually a definition of the soul within?

While many may say that the soul is a part of the body that goes to be with God, I must argue that the soul is just a depository of those things that make us human. Kind of like a kitchen cabinet or a closet . We store all the things we hold dear in there, or just the stuff that we seem to have accumulated over the years, take them out show them to others, and place them back until the next time we need them.

Therefore our soul is no more than just a representation of who we really are, rather than who we think we should be.

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