I watched an incredible television series on Amazon over the last few days. The program centered around a man who was handcuffed to a table and being interviewed by a grieving mother who believed that the convict had killed her son. At one point in the interview, he predicted future events that would happen in the sorrowful mother’s life. When she asked him how he knew the future he replied that he ‘remembered the future.’ What a great line! In the spirit of not revealing too much of the plot, I will leave it there…but it was a bit of a unique slant on life.

De Ja Vu is a strange experience. To have the feeling that you have met someone before but to have no memory of doing so…is akin to Halloween. Or to travel to a location and know that you have been there before…but you do not remember when. I experienced de Ja Vu in Oxford, England during our visit in 2016. The University seemed like home to me. The Pubs and the little winding streets I had trod before… It felt like I had sat at one of the tables in the Eagle and Child and enjoyed a pint with CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien…

During my high school days a quiet and unassuming fellow student…who I was not acquainted with came up to me and asked me if she could tell me something. I said please do and she said that she knew that one day I would be the leader of a large department containing hundreds of people. At the time I had not had my first job and I thought about how sweet she was and how unlikely what she predicted would happen.

I was a member of the Chancellor’s Search Committee that brought Chancellor Jo Ann Agrersinger to Campus and she subsequently became our Chancellor. The moment that I met her…I was attempting to place how I knew her. Of course in reality I did not know Dr. Argersinger…but I could not shake the pervasive feeling that I had at some time and somewhere…

As a little more than a toddler in Chicago in Sauk Village…I recall thinking as I perused our lovely little home…’At least we have a nice home…this time…’