John Y’s Musings from the Middle: You Look Just Like…

“You look just like…”

I have never liked hearing this sentence and I suspect most people don’t. It means someone else out there in the universe is basically a carbon copy of you and, hence, one of your is unnecessary. Or at least you aren’t as special or unique, a feeling we all like to have.

I had someone tell me yesterday, “I can’t remember the person’s name….Oh, the name doesn’t even matter. But you (speaking to me) look so much like this guy…..(Pause)

Actually, it’s a silhouette of a generic male. I know that sounds nondescript and dull. And may even sound like an insult but I don’t mean it that way. It’s just whenever I see you, I think of that black silhouette image of a generic person. There’s just something about you that reminds me of this image….It’s so odd. And really uncanny”

OK. That really didn’t happen to me.

And I hope it never does.

I can deal with being told I look like a real person. But when I am ….it sometimes feels as uninspiring little like this imaginary interaction.