If you met yourself in a parallel world, would you like yourself?  Would you trust yourself?

Meeting your identical counterpart in other dimension would surely be the ultimate evaluation.  An extreme appraisal of  your highlights, but also all your worst characteristics.

Just imagine seeing and hearing yourself as others do. From the outside, would you like the way they looked – too fat or thin,  odd clothes, the wrong hair?  When they spoke, would you think them dull or opinionated? Would they say judgemental, ridiculous things or have irritating habits? Would they listen or care about you? In the first five minutes of meeting them, would you want to be their friend?

It’s a scary idea to step outside and really look at yourself isn’t it?

When I am writing, I am cruel. I do this to most of my characters. I force them to meet their doppelgängers.  Some of them become friends, whereas others are immediately suspicious because they know what really goes on behind the eyes and in the thoughts of their counterparts.

Yesterday, I visited Batemans, the home of the internationally famous writer Rudyard Kipling in Sussex, England, who died in 1936. As I looked at the photographs and memorabilia in his house, I saw a man who had achieved so much in one lifetime. I wonder if he thought the same about himself?

We can’t compare ourselves to others because we all have our own individual talents and limitations, but how proud would we be of our doppelgängers?