Doppelganger

Definitely one of the strangest words in the standard English vocabulary. Everybody knows it, knows what it means. Probably because of the conspiracy theory type nature of the meaning. Everybody wants to have an opinion on these types of things. Do we or don’t we? People have a yes or a no opinion or often most interestingly their own elaborate fabrication of the state of being. Some kind of personal experience or ‘research’ which proves… at least to them… beyond reasonable doubt that it is the state of the universe that this is so.

One of the most personally entertaining conspiracy theories I know is one of my dads creation. Literally creation, it is his elaborate position on how it is matter is created in the universe. It is completely unrealistic… well unscientific… which in the modern world position is unrealistic. However, isn’t that the fun of most conspiracy theory? Stories invented to entertain the more suspicious parts of the human brain.

Anyway Dad’s theory… Its a bit cruel to mention it without sharing it. Though I must warn that it isn’t quite as good second hand as it is with my dad’s conviction of truth behind it. We used to live in a house, a rented house, that was completely carpeted… However after we’d been living there about 2 years the owner decied to have all the carpet taken up and replaced.. with wood flooring. We went from vacuuming to oil mopping. From emptying a vacuum bag to beating the mop like a blackboard duster. The one thing that couldn’t be missed was the lint… it was constantly accumulating. People say that’s a bad thing about carpet… it accumulates dust that even the vacuum can’t clean out. Still I think I’d prefer it and I think it was better for my dad’s sanity.

The lint he found increasingly irritating. No matter how frequently you mopped the floor the dust and lint was there accumulating the the corners at an extraordinary rate. Every Sunday morning my brother mopped the floors and every Sunday afternoon it started to get dusty all over again. So after a couple of months… And the loss of a number of dads work socks through the standard washer then dryer cycle. The number one cause of sock loss in the world I’m sure. He told me he had solved the secret of the universe. Dad had determined by ‘experimental research’ of our home that matter obviously comes into the universe via lint… and one of the key creation points is our very own home. Additionally matter leaves the universe in the form of socks though dryers all over the world… As I say not as cool as when dad goes through his elaborate description of it but definitely an entertaining view of the world.

Anyway back to the namesake of my ramblings today. I did initially start this writing to talk about my own view of the doppelganger theory. Personally I’m not big on conspiracy theory… A large number of them are out there specifically attacking Christian faith and belief. However some of the more interesting ones like doppelgangers and was there ever a man on the moon. The entertaining thing about these kinds of con. theories is no matter how loyal you are to your own point of view watching or listening to propaganda for the other said is like watching a movie… suspension of belief… or disbelief depending… is a wonderful thing.

Oh dear… I do seem to be having a time of it trying to stay on topic today. Probably because I haven’t written in over a week. From doing NOTHING for the last week. I seem to be suffering from a lack of things to procrastinate from. When there isn’t work you should be doing and stuff you shouldn’t be doing because it means you aren’t doing your work you end up doing… pretty close to nothing. People call it relaxing… it is… but it is also nothing… I have wasted sooo much time with nothing to show for it. Well… there is a lot of hours of watching CSI Miami and playing gimmicky computer games I wouldn’t normally have the time of day for. Never the less brain off time is good. It is just about as addictive as procrastination. Unfortunately unlike procrastination it leads to nothingness. So as much as I am dreading going back to work, to uni, to real life it’ll be good for me.

Anyhow… Doppelgangers. I’m a believer. Not that two people are perfectly identical except in the case of twins but certainly two people can look similar enough that you need to do the double to triple take. Doppelgangers are one of the more entertaining of phenomenon. Identical twins just have to suffer after all its something they really did bring upon themselves even if it was long before they had any conscious thought or decision making skills. However for non identical people people mistaken for another person can create confusion, frustration or most importantly entertainment value. Now I am also going to say my entertaining doppelganger doesn’t only come in the physical sense.

One of the most entertaining doppelganger style situations I live with on a daily basis is my neighbour one of the two people last named ‘Jones’. Wonderful thing about the technology age… A whole new form of doppelganger now exist. She shares one, admittedly critical, piece of information with one of the other guys in our building and it causes all sorts of entertaining mix up. That are different sexs, live in different halls, do different degrees but all sorts of mix ups in mail, in paperwork, in degree requirements are constantly happening… to the entertainment of all who are not them.

Put anyway the more classic doppelganger theory. Everybody has somebody in the world that is the spitting image of them. I’m just going to point out the obvious… In most cases if you are going to have a doppelganger it is going to be a relative. But by no means always. There was a story… must be a slow news week… the other day where the news crews had come up with a doppelganger of… don’t quote me my memory might be failing me… but Tom Cruise? my celebrity knowledge isn’t great so I can’t be sure. But they took it around. The guy’s likeness so striking they managed to get all the star treatment wherever they went.

Unfortunately the trick to doppelgangers is people only want one it the other person is famous. I personally can claim doppelganger status. Incredible though it may be me and a cousin 8 years my senior are spitting image of one another… well I am of her I guess being the younger one. Its quite entertaining to think considering if I went through we have different eye colour, different noses, different body shapes… and yet. If it seems unlikely that that we could manage to confuse people. I managed to be mistaken for her at her wedding! several years ago… I’m talking 15 year old girl mistaken for a 23 year old woman in a wedding dress. Not by any old people either but by family. Admittedly the kind of family of hers that wasn’t family of mine. But it certainly goes a long way in proving a point.

You wont some more doppelgangers? The Olsen twins are perhaps the most famous doppelgangers going… or they were a few years back. The two are admittedly sisters. But sisterhood doesn’t guarantee the kind of likeness that leads to identical twin status for fraternal twins… well i think that is the term. Doppelgangers are the most fun though… All those celeb look alike pages in school year books… all in spirit of good fun.