I love talent shows.  While singing and dancing competitions flood the airwaves, my favorite show is “America’s Got Talent,” which showcases everything from ventriloquism to stand-up comedy, animal acts, magic, and everything in between.

A few years ago little Jackie Evancho, a cute 10 year old from Pittsburgh with the operatic voice and presence of a 30 year old, finished as “Runner Up.”  She has since performed on international stages, recorded numerous best-selling albums, amassed a huge fan base, and even has a doll made in her image!  At 13 she has already launched a successful career.

This week another young person–an 18 year old boy with a similarly gorgeous operatic voice–made his debut on this same show.  But the backgrounds of these two young talents couldn’t be more different.  Whereas Jackie was born into a musical family to parents who appreciate and nurture her talent while providing a stable, secure, loving home-base in which to develop and mature, Jonathan Allen was “kicked out” by his parents on his 18th birthday for confessing he is gay.

Unlike Jackie, who had family rooting for her at home and accompanying her to the auditions, Jonathan showed up alone.  She comes across as a “golden child;” he, as “little boy lost.” Yet, my hunch is they were both born with similar destinies and will both end up with successful, fulfilling lives and careers.

So, why has the path of one been cleared to allow her to so easily arrive at her destination while the other’s has been strewn with so many obstacles and hurdles?

If you’ve read my work, you know I don’t believe in good or bad “luck” as a rational explanation to anything that happens in life. Nor do I believe in a partial God who “chooses” one over another where bestowing happiness and success is concerned.

The law of karma is a perfect, impersonal, natural law.  It is simply the playing-out of the effects of causes we have previously set into motion through free-willed actions.  Where children are concerned, these actions would have occurred in previous lifetimes.

This law, as well as the soul’s decision to learn and/or teach specific skills and life-lessons, provides rational, fair, understandable explanations to virtually any question one might pose regarding the purpose of human life in general as well as questions regarding individual life experiences, challenges, successes, and failures.

In the case of Jackie and Jonathan, they both–obviously–brought with them into this life talents they had honed and used to the benefit of others over many lifetimes.  This explanation can be applied to any child prodigy whose innate knowledge and talents seem, on the surface, to be mysterious and  inexplicable.  While Jackie chose to be born into an environment where she could begin expressing and sharing her talent at a very young age, Jonathan chose one in which he would also be given an opportunity to develop and/or perfect his self-nurturing, self-motivational, self-reliance skills.

This would simply mean that Jackie’s soul had worked, previously, to perfect these qualities; or, that she has chosen to postpone working on them.  At some point, we all come to the realization that in order to be self-possessed, self-actualized human beings we need to look to ourselves rather than others for approval, motivation, nurturance, and individual identity.  It’s just a matter of: sooner–or–later?