What soul got to do with it?

So here is one of those philosophical questions, that has been ponder and will be ponder until there is noone left to ponder it, and since there are plenty of folks out there who really don't have time to waste on such pondering, it's up to daydreaming poets and philosophers to do so. Not that I'm the time of guy to sit around and fret about questions with no answer, or stress myself over forces of which I have no control, but I have giving the idea, the concept, of the 'soul' some ponderance. I remember back in high school, trading souls was all the rage, written pieced of paper stating I give up my soul in trade for a pencil, lunch money... whatever... What else is high school for. So one of the early questions for me was, do animals, plant have souls, well good question, lesser forms, lesser developed perhaps. Growing up raised in a christian church, I found that I was personally more interested in matters of a spiritual nature, and found myself quite frustrated by the answers I was given. I don't really remember much discussion regarding the human soul, more of the don't sin, or your going to hell...I do remember one preacher saying that he had never sinned, and that it was easy to live I life free of sin...Well my definition sin had changed since those days of my youth. A definition I recently came across that apparently goes back to a Greek word, is: to miss the mark. Which seems to make a lot more sense then whatever type of 'sin' they tried to teach us to avoid every Sunday. They probably were not referring to the Sumerian moon goddess, would be my guess.... Well back to the questions at hand...Soul, good god, hit me, what is soul, well James Brown that man's got soul, which gets to another idea or concept regarding soul, which is what moves the human soul is good music, music that cuts to the core of your being, music that moves you to dance...anyone who has seen me moved to dance might laugh, but I truly love it. So one of the theories regarding soul from my teenage days of wandering and manic poetry, was that of the allsoul, which is simply that, all is manifestation of the essence of original material which is the soul of the divine....Now found it quite interesting to learn later that this what basically what you will find in eastern philosophy...little did I know at the time. So what is soul, well that's a Stereo Mc's song, you know they sing, Connected, you've heard it, in all likelihood. I remember reading Ogre, Ogre by Piers Anthony, the story was about an Ogre who only had half a soul, who I guess what smart average over...It's been a while since I've read it, I was probably about 14 or so...and not really interested in Ogre girls, and likely he goes to see good magician Humphrey...if you've ever read any Xanth, most everyone goes to his castle for 3 trials, and then they get a question answered, which usually leads to being sent on a quest....Well If I remember right the Ogre is asking why he has half a soul, ends up meeting a nymph who has half a soul as well, the go into a gourd which leading the some sorta underworld, the place where those nightmares hangout when they are not delivering disturbing dreams....well long story short, do the math, ogre 1/2 soul + nymph 1/2 soul = one soul, all good there. That's a fairly classical interpretation as well, one soul became split in two, and is later unified. Ka, Ki, Me, oh my, what is my soul, would happen when I die? Silly questions. Well I have other theories, ideas, about what is up with this soul business, and reading what others have had to say about it can be interesting, but for now, time to get back to work.