Sophia decided she had to make the definitive cut that tied her to constrictive and controlling relationships and community. With one decisive swing of the axe, she separated herself and set herself apart. Of course, they would interpret her decision and act as violent, rash, unnecessary and permanent. But this was the only way she could find her own mind, her own voice, and even her own life… her right to be independent. It was a prophetic act against the community. But it was a prophetic act for herself.

“Within what one calls religions- Judaism, Christianity, Islam, or other religions- there are again tensions, heterogeneity, disruptive volcanoes, sometimes texts, especially those of the prophets, which cannot be reduced to an institution, to a corpus, to a system. I want to keep the right to read these texts in a way which has to be constantly reinvented. It is something which can be totally new at every moment.” (Derrida)

When the prophets who emerge out of any tradition are alive and speaking, they are always considered outside the established community, and even enemies of it! They stand beyond the tradition, rebellious, and defying all labels, untamable and dangerous. They refuse to be labeled and cannot be claimed by any certain religion. Their concern is for the truth of which no one institution can assert singular ownership. Eventually, their stories and words are co-opted back into the very tradition they exposed and challenged. But they’ve been changed, or adjusted, or explained, or idolized, and have lost their primal potency.

Sophia finally recognized this cyclical habit communities default to and has decided to break free to discover this wild and uncontrollable spirit beyond the community’s control.

She intends to explore then employ this spirit in her new life that she has created for herself. She’s a prophet and doesn’t even know it.