My Female Equivalent

I’ve become obsessed by the amazing dance moves of The Blow:

I’ve decided that Mikhaela Maricich, who records under the moniker The Blow, is a female Reihan. For one thing, our dance sensibilities are identical. This song, incidentally, is rad. I really, really want to cut an album. There is no way I’ll ever make music this good, but if I start early enough, I might get halfway there. Something to live for!

I’m intrigued by this notion that we all have doppelgangers. I’ve met a few metaphorical Reihans, i.e., people who broadly occupy my role in a social setting, and, as you might expect, I find them a little tough to be around — chatty to a fault, overcurious, performative, excitable, and always eager to dance: there can only be one in a room, preferably zero. There are some exceptions. I have met Reihans who are improved variations on the theme: older, poised, more at ease with themselves, and I like to think I’ve evolved in that direction over the years, mostly deliberately. As a firm believer in the Timothy Wilson Strangers to Ourselves framework, I think there’s a lot to enacting certain behaviors to effect change, e.g., “I’m depressed, I will smile more”; “I’m cripplingly shy, I will make an effort to meet people”; in my case, “I’m a loudmouth who behaves like a poor man’s Don Rickles, I will listen more.”

I’ve also met Reihans who are even more self-absorbed, and I keep them in mind as cautionary examples. Actually, one of my favorite people is a self-absorbed female Reihan, so I shouldn’t be too hard on them. Overall, I’d say I’m a A-/B+ male Reihan. One of my favorite Reihans is the director of a small urban non-profit. He’s a more wry and self-starting character, though I take comfort in the fact that he is two years older than me, which gives me a little bit of time to catch up. Of course, he’s also a moving target. Damn it!