My Deja Vu Column

I’m a simple man. I’m as practical and down-to-earth as they come. I prefer logic and reason over hunches. Give me a choice and I’ll choose clarity and what I can see, touch, and taste, over the inferred and the innuendo; the Evening News over TV tabloid shows; and The Godfather and it’s epic story over The Bachelor or any number of current day reality shows that dot the airwaves.

I’ve been fascinated lately though with the touchy-feely, deja vu moments in our lives. Déjà vu is the strange feeling of familiarity that can make you feel like you’ve experienced something before, even though you know you haven’t. The term comes from the French phrase déjà vu, meaning “already seen.”

I feel like this has happened to me a lot lately: I’m in the middle of a conversation or an activity, when all of a sudden I’m overwhelmed by the sensation that I’ve done the exact same thing before — but I know that’s not possible.

In some way, it makes sense. I’ve had a number of moments over the past ten years where I’ve got to watch my three grown kids experience special moments that I experienced myself: leaving home and going off to college, graduating, living in the big city, and starting a life of my own. Now I get to see those same things through their eyes.

It’s a strange feeling there’s no question. I know that I am not alone in feeling this way.

I write more about deja vu moments in my blog post, Childhood Feelings Coming Out of Hiding, on the Heart of the Matter. I write about a hike I took as a teenager and how it came back to me recently when I reflected on an interaction I had with my father-in-law.

I felt the same “did this really happen?” questions? I felt the same rush and surprise and strangeness? Most of all, I felt like I had been there before. Does this ever happen to you?