Vuja De - The strange feeling that you have experienced NONE of this before.

When I was in school, I was a band-geek.

There, I said it.

I loved it. When I went to my reunion last year, it was if no time had passed and nothing had changed. It was my element.

Anyway, one of the things I strove for was to get better at playing. I had taken private lessons my entire musical career and it paid off.

But I wanted to get better. So I spoke to my then current teacher and some friends and I found out who was the best in the area. The price was prohibitive for my folks so I ended up paying for the lessons myself.

I went to Roy.

Wow, how to describe him.....energy, joy, weird, serious, a wise guide.

A mentor.

A friend.

Lessons were not all playing exercises out of a book. They mixed philosophy, religion, New Age-I-ness, lectures, fun.

We didn't always agree but we respected where the other person came from.

For instance. Roy believed in reincarnation. I didn't. He would rhapsodize about prior lives

"You know, I think if you boiled 'me' down to the basic element, I think it would be 'teacher'."

I agreed with that. Still do.

He taught me things I would consider bizarre. Visualization, for instance, was key. I thought a lot of the new age stuff was wacky but it worked.

Don't argue with results.

After High School, I went to college in another corner of the state. There I had a teacher who despised Roy, and pulled no punches telling me so.

Since I was supportive of Roy, I was therefore garbage. He pulled no punches telling me so. Every Monday morning.

For two....solid.....hours.

This guy taught me something to. He taught me that my self worth is not based on what HE thought of me. My self-worth came from within.

Years later, that lesson served me very well.

I returned to where Roy taught the next year and we resumed where we left off. I had some initial trouble transferring. He pulled some strings and got me in.

I remember vividly saying.

"Fantastic! My life is complete!"

His response. "Great, I guess we can all just sit around and watch you die."

That was over 15 years ago.

A couple years ago, I tried to look Roy up. I thought it would be nice to catch up, talk about who we actually were when we were boiled down to our elements. I wanted to hear one of his reincarnation stories.

Roy died several years ago - back in 2000.

The funny thing is, I was sad because I missed him and wanted to see him, but I didn't cry because he died.

Roy believed in reincarnation. I'll catch him on his next lap.