By Ann Von Dehsen, May 5, 2019 — A long time ago when I was a college student walking along the sidewalks of Boston, I saw a man in the distance coming towards me. In my head, I was saying, “Oh there’s… there’s… there’s…” but I couldn’t think of his name or how I knew him. It seemed like he was someone from my past, but being only 20, I didn’t have much of a past. But I was sure I knew him and that it was really good to see him again, whoever he was. Meanwhile, he apparently was going through the same mental head game as we got closer to each other establishing eye contact and smiling and almost going into a slow-motion movie scene embrace. Instead, he said very hesitantly, “It’s good to see you again?” To which I replied, “You too?” Then almost at the same time, we said, “Sorry, I was sure I knew you.”
Then we spent several minutes trying to establish some connection – our names, where we grew up, where we went to school, friends names, relatives names, groups we may have been a part of in the past. Nothing. And it wasn’t that we reminded each other of someone we currently knew. We truly believed we knew each other at some point but maybe just not in this lifetime. Though we enjoyed this strange reunion, there was no plan to see each other again, but we hugged and wished each other the happiness in this life that we may have shared in a past life. I smiled as I walked away thinking, “It sure was nice to see him again, whoever he was!”