Doppelganger

                        Doppelgänger

The other day a friend of mine – actually more than a friend, but I’ll go into that relationship shortly – was chatting with me and said, “Hey brother, you might be interested that I saw your doppelgänger today.” 

I blankly said, “Huh?”  (I’m quick on the uptake most of the time as you can see.)

He went on to say, “He was one of my customers at work today and when I saw him come in the door, I called him by your name.  When he gave me a puzzled look, I examined him a bit closer and realized that – maybe – it wasn’t you.”  He continued, “But son-of-a-gun, he REALLY looked like you.  I even showed him your picture on my phone to back up my assertions and later took one of him to show you.”  He then pulled out his phone and showed me the photo of this person in question, this doppelgänger.  I looked at it and responded, “Yes it really DOES look like me.” 

Kinda. 

He sent me the aforementioned photo later that day and I looked at it once again after enlarging it on my computer.  Yep, still looked familiar.  But doppelgänger?  Identical?  It was really hard to say from one picture, one angle.  But close.  Doggone close! 

So dear reader, for my amusement, have you checked out the photo at the top?  For those of you who have seen me in the last decade or so and know what I look like, does it look like yours truly or not?  I’m curious as to your answer.

To continue on with a vaguely associated train of thought, did you know that babies learn most of what they need to know by the age of three?  They observe and listen and see almost everything.  And they soak it all in.  They are truly little sponges.  But the objects they focus on the most are faces.  Babies are absolute geniuses when it comes to faces.  The first one they concentrate on is, obviously, their mom’s.  They are able to identify their mom very, very early in life.  This ability to identify faces continues throughout their lives.  Humans are very good at discerning faces.  In fact, we are all Einsteins in this field!  Imagine looking at a picture of a group of people right at this moment.  You are able, almost always, to pick out people you know.  Even if the picture is blurry, grainy or small.  You can usually say, “that’s Uncle Johnny” or “there’s ol’ what’s his name from where I work.” 

Even if the picture was taken decades ago. 

You might not immediately muster up his name, but you surely KNOW that face!  I’m sure you’ve said numerous times in your life, “I forget the name but I REMEMBER THAT FACE!”  I know I have.  And if you think about it, that’s actually pretty remarkable!  And let’s make sure we all understand.  The difference between your face and mine is very small.  We all have one nose, two eyes, two ears plus the associated cheeks, chins, foreheads, wrinkles, etc.  And they are VERY similar in size and shape – the difference between yours and mine is in millimeters or less.  But we can usually differentiate Bobby from Betty from Ben almost all the time!  Even from quite a distance. 

It’s a truly exceptional trait.

What I think is even more remarkable, you are able to see various subtle differences in faces and be comfortably certain that any two are probably kin – brothers, sisters, parents, aunts and uncles.  Just from minor variations in size and placement of facial features.  When you think about it, isn’t that incredible also? 

Oh, and speaking of brothers…  Have you ever pondered about what actually constitutes a brother?

You would probably think this question is a gimme.  A brother is a sibling of yours – another offspring of your parents.  Male.  Or he’s possibly an offspring of just one of your parents, making him a half-brother.  That kind of brother is, of course, blood and your relationship is easy to understand.  If the brother came along due to the remarriage of a parent, they became stepbrothers. Also easy-peasy to understand.

Another is a relationship by common ties or interests.  A brother stamp collector, a brother member of the military (a brother-in-arms), a brother fireman or policeman.  Even a brother heart attack survivor.  (Me.)

One more definition of brother to bring the topic back to where I want it.  It’s that of fellow member.  Similar to the above definition, perhaps, but possibly even closer.  Brother clergymen, Brother Christian or Brother Mason.

And with that last one, Brother Mason, we come back around to the friend I mentioned in an earlier paragraph of this blog who showed me the photo of my doppelgänger.  He’s a brother of that particular flavor, his name is Ben (hi Ben!) and he is one of my Masonic brothers from our local lodge.  Now due to my recent reaffiliation with this fraternity after a too-many-year hiatus, I’ve only known Brother Ben for a few months, but already consider him my brother almost as much as my blood brother Chuck and of my military brothers from the Air Force.  And because of the comfort level I have with him and the others in my lodge, I’m more than happy to share the story of his remarkable meeting with my erstwhile doppelgänger with the faithful readers of this blog. 

So to wind this down to some sort of conclusion, do you believe in doppelgängers?  Do you believe that there are people walking the Earth today that are, as close as can be determined, identical to yourself?  Do you believe?

Well, I believe there are!  Of course, I’ve got the picture!  And of course I also believe in little green men in flying saucers (most of the time).  So go figure.

But most of all I believe in brothers.  The blood kind, the brother-in-arms kind and the fraternal kind.

We got each other’s backs.