Saving Private Ryan...

I had a conversation today that I cannot get out of my head tonight. There is a man I have known for about 15 years now. He is kind, generous, caring, very funny, logical and seems to just have this smart funny, logical sense about him that I enjoy. He is married with 3 children - and a happy person - happy life. Our conversations are always good one's and I come to look forward these chats. I want to respect his privacy so that is all I will say to preface this story.

I had the opportunity to talk with him this afternoon and in the course of conversation he asked if I had seen Gran Torino. Not yet. Somehow the conversation progressed and we eventually landed on Tom Hanks movies. He talked about how bad he hated Forrest Gump. I said, "Who hates Forrest!!!! I loved that movie!" He said it made his skin crawl. Then he asked if I have seen "Saving Private Ryan". As he stood there he began to change right before my eyes.

His face began to get red and I could clearly see he was tearing up and trying to look away from me. Then he says, "I think I lived another life and fought in World War II." I started to laugh, because this guy is just notoriously fall down funny. He said, "NO. I'm serious. All of my life I have been plagued by thoughts of WWII. As soon as I was old enough to learn, it became apparent to everyone around me that I could not handle talking about or even seeing movies about WWII. It is so horrifying to me, that I cannot handle even discussing it like this." He continued on for awhile and told me that when he was 16 he was to be involved in a school project about it. He was eventually pulled out of it because of the emotional turmoil. This has gone on all of his life.

He believes that he fought in that war in another life. Coming from anyone else - I might have just heard it and walked away thinking, "Hmm. Could be." But because it was "him" there is no question in my mind he is a man that is aware of "something" within him that is very staggering.

I didn't ask alot of questions but he shared enough for me to know he did not arrive at this conclusion easily. It was painfully, in fact. I read once that peoples fear's are supposed be due to some trauma in another life that directly involve [i.e.] flying or heights. Hmm. I hope I get to talk with him again about this.

There is really no point to this post. I guess I continue to be reminded of how important it is to keep an open mind when it pertains to life in general. Life is a fascinating journey. For everything we claim we can prove or disprove, can we really?