You Remind Me of Someone I Know
Every so often I run across someone that has a shared interest or similar wit or even a similar creative thought now and then. (I know, it can be a little disconcerting knowing there might be someone else out there like me.) There are different connection points—someone who has a passion for typography (Maynard), ideas about how to raise boys (Catherine) or the kind of bass guitar…or parachute pants…we sported in high school (you know who you are…Tony).
But beyond these sometimes singular, sometimes random connection points with friends and colleagues there is this odd vortex where I’m working with someone and there’s something else happening—more than just a similar idea or passion. It’s more than just coincidence. It’s more than just “Oh, I like this and so do you.” It’s more like long lost twins being reunited and finding out they drive the same car, shop at the same store, have the same inexplicable buying sprees of random items.
How is it that two people can be armed with very little information about a particular project, days and weeks go by, and upon convening to discuss ones thoughts we come with not only similar ideas but similar purchases and in some instances saying the same thing in tandem…Jinx!. It can be chilling at times but it’s so fun to have a doppelgänger.
“A what?” you may be asking. A doppelgänger. It’s a fun word to say and it has a few meanings (some kinda dark and creepy) but one definition I think describes my experience with this kind of person is “a glimpse of one’s self in peripheral vision”. I’m saying this is a positive…if not then I’m making it out to be a positive for my own satisfaction. (And it’s German, so of course I’m gonna like it.)
So, who is my doppelgänger? Well, I have a few to varying degrees but in the past few months there have been enough doppelgänger-moments between me and food stylist Teresa Blackburn that I felt compelled to at least acknowledge our doppelgänger-ness here and now.
Teresa is an artist, a thinker, a tinkerer, a reader, a writer, a friend, a giver… I could go on and on with her positive attributes. We connect on so many of these (except that giver thing…I’m the selfish one). We always have fun working together, chatting about life and business, sharing fun ideas and, more often than not, finding ourselves on the same mental track. She was the first to label our doppelgänger-esque relationship as that—Doppelgängers.
We’ve had some personal projects we’ve done together over the past few years. We started a little something a number of months ago based on an inspiration from a vintage ice cream freezer of hers, and what happened after that was just short of something worth documenting on A&E’s Hoarders. I forget the final count but let’s just say we now have a comprehensive inventory of vintage ice cream freezers between the two of us. This is just one instance of our doppelgänger-ing.
How it started…
Where it went…
And started to get out of control…
A portion of the hoarding…
The guilty…
Yes, I could go on and on, but as I try and finish my thoughts here (I should probably just let Teresa do it for me) I’ll say this…it’s fun working with people and connecting on levels where the inexplicable alikeness happens. Not to sound to deep or weird, but I think we—you and me and everyone else—are created to be connected and encouraged by others who are, in some way, a glimpse of ourselves in peripheral vision.
– Kyle
