“It’s déjà vu all over again,” Yogi Berra. Whatever happened to déjà vu? At one time it happened to everyone I knew.
I remember. We'd sit on the ugly green carpet at Micky and Pete’s, discussing theatrical things, listening to music, or improving a scene, and someone would say, “I’m having a déjà vu.” It would happen in front of the group. It was a commonplace thing.
Micky would put on Crosby, Stills, and Nash, their best album named Déjà Vu. The discussion would change. Every face would be unraveling the puzzle of a déjà vu. We'd discuss our experience—our déjà vu legends. We’d use them to prove our psychic connection, our extreme self-awareness, our cosmic perception. We'd trade our stories like badges of honor. But CSN has quit singing, and it's been long since I've heard someone say, “I’m having a déjà vu.” Has it got a new name that I haven’t heard?
I'm having a déjà vu. It’s been a long time, and I’m not sure what to do.
Actually, I’m not even sure I should mutter the words déjà vu. The term may have gone underground. It may be claimed as merely in the mind of the present-tense-challenged. I don’t need to be having some new-found disorder, or sent to a Déjà Vu Betty Ford Clinic. I don’t want to be marked as an old dinosaur or as some deflated hippie drug freak.
That wouldn’t be good, that labeling part. Labels stick to everything.
My children’s book work would fall apart. The Three Little Pigs wouldn’t get to the city. My novel, set in the character’s mind, would dissolve to a mushy soap opera. The harm to my son’s reputation at Georgetown U would leave him looking for work. Inevitably any label applied would make it to some public forum. Rich relatives would show their displeasure by writing us out of the will. Our home would be taken. My husband and I would be bickering for food on the street.
Villains would see our misery and misread it incomprehensibly. They would call it a U.S. action to injure their leader, and trouble would escalate exponentially. The media would vie for rights to the story. This chain of destruction would trace back to me—for saying déjà vu a little too loudly—not that I intended to.
Unless other people still have a déjà vu now and then. . . .
I'm having a déjà vu. It’s been a long time, and I’m not sure what to do.
I just know I’ve done this exact thing before. I've been at this exact laptop before. I've written for this exact blog before. I just know it. I’m having a déjà vu.
Whatever happened to déjà vu? At one time it happened to everyone I knew. . .
—me strauss Letting me be
18 comments:
Hahahahaha
Love that line 'whatever happened to deja vu', but spotted the joke with the first mention.
You're right, its died down, I hadnt noticed.
Maybe it really was (as once suggested) that sections of our brains were running a millisecond out of synch, because with deja vu you only realise you have done this before, at the exact time that you do it? But if that were true, then like Irlens and ADD and the rest, it ought to be on the increase, not fallen off the map.
Weird.
Hi Cheryl,
I agree that's what we had thought our brains running a head too--though we preferred to think we're were just psychically superior. :)Glad you spotted the joke. I was up for a little more fun.
Smiles
Liz
Hell good blog, babe! As Stevie BigFatHorror King had called it: "The feeling you can only say what it is in french".
Regards
Hey Weird Bloke,
That's one I've never heard before. I like it. Thanks to you and your friend, Steve. (Don't want to know how you two pick out your names. :))
me-Liz
Hi again, i actually thought of Stephen King, whose story "the feeling you can only say what it is in french" is published in the book "evrything's eventual". Sorry to disenchant the namepicking ;)
Why thank you Weird Bloke,
for so graciously returning with this news. Now the name makes total sense to me. :) Don't much like his books, which is why I can't quote him. I'll rely on you for that. ;)
smiles,
me-Liz
PS. I usually am much quicker on the uptake than that. For some reason I'm not quite awake today.
Hello Strauss…I love Crosby, Stills, Nash (and Young too) I saw them all in concert in St Louise three years ago in February, and lemme tell ya they are still singing quite well….except maybe for Stills, his voice is a little rougher than it once was, but when he sang the blues, it was marvelous….in fairness to ol’ Steven Stills it could have been a rough night for him, maybe he had a sore throat or something.
I love Stephen King and one of my favorite string of words that he put together comes from a novel he wrote called The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon….”The world had teeth and it could bite you with them anytime it wanted.” Man I love that sentence.
I know a few people who have been feeling something similar to déjà vu, myself included, but it has to do with the war that we find ourselves in, and I won’t pollute your blog with my political views.
BTW, very well written and interesting blog…I like the way you express yourself and I can relate to a lot of the posts that you have written. I loved the obsessive compulsive worry over time, heee, made me smile. I obsess over nearly everything.
Hey Fineartist,
You can call me Strauss. You can call me Liz. Actually my brothers I have more names than anyone. . . .
I saw CSN live back in the olden days and still listen to them now. I know they're still singing and if they were singing on a stage near me I'd probably be there. :)
I love your Stephen King sentence, but don't quite feel the same about Stephen King's books--too boy's nightmare for me.
I'm delighted to hear that deja vu lives on and appreciate your sensitivity. Thanks for your kind words about the blog. I'll try to keep it worth reading.
smiles,
me-Liz
Déjà vu just isn't what it used to be.
Kind of makes you wish you could do it all over again. :)
smiles,
me-Liz
Well, straussi, just read "Gerald's Game" from S.K and it soon will take away from the "boy's nightmare"-thought, becoming the nightmare of every woman! Good nite, wb
Good night WB.
No nightmares and no SK for me.
hell, you're a nightowl as myself, huh?
but it seems i've beaten you ;)
I was over reading your article on Stephen King. I'll talk over there. :)
I think you are right, the deja vu's just aren't as frequent as they used to be; hardly ever it seems. Do you think it's because of less drugs induced states? speaking for myself of course. They were cool, like stepping into the twilight zone. crosby stills and nash can almost induce one for sure.
Hi RDL,
Yep, I think it had something to do with the 70s things that we did. Deja vus were cool and mellow things.
I miss them. I'd like them to happen all over again.
smiles
Liz
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