What do Yogi Berra’s famous quote “Deja vu all over again” and The Kingston Trio’s song “The Merry Minuet” have in common? Answer: They both touched on the essence of what makes us human: we frequently, if not routinely, keep doing the same things over and over. Consequently we are our own worst enemies. Some things never change, or so it seems.
As I’ve been writing these pages and closely following current events, I increasingly hear the lyrics of “The Merry Minuet,” a popular 1959 song by The Kingston Trio. It goes:
“They’re rioting in Africa,
They’re starving in Spain,
There’s hurricanes in Florida,
And Texas needs rain
The whole world is festering
With unhappy souls
The French hate the Germans
The Germans hate the Poles;
Italians hate Yugoslavs,
South Africans hate the Dutch,
And I don’t like anybody very much!
But we can be tranquil
And “thankful” and proud, For man’s been endowed
With a mushroom shaped cloud.
And we know for certain
That some lovely day
Someone will set the spark off,
And we will all be blown away!
They’re rioting in Africa,
There’s strife in Iran.
What nature doesn’t do to us
Will be done by our fellow man!”
How timely, huh? Yogi Berra’s famous words about “deja vu” seem almost prophetic in describing where we find ourselves—“all over again!”