Mirror Doppelganger

Mirror Doppelganger

By Anthony dunlap

Looking in the mirror, I see the face of the person responsible for ruining my life…

Staring at this person in the mirror, there was always an innocence in his eyes and what I believed to be, a person with a big heart and good intentions. But seeing him still fills me with disgust, resentment, and even hate as I think back upon all the years of pain he has caused me. Every person I’ve ever hurt, every failed relationship, every drug I became addicted to. All of that was the fault of this mirror doppelganger. Even all of my friends and family throughout my life would always try to explain to me that this was the person truly responsible for all of my choices whether they were good or bad. But every time I would try and confront the person in the mirror about it, he would just deny it every time.

One day while I was in a hate-sneered staring contest with the doppelganger, I noticed something. Looking in the mirror I saw that he had a very peculiar shadow attached to him. This shadow was both physically there, but also “metaphorically” there. It was a dark thing. I pondered on it long and could find no good emanating from this shadow.

I was then aware of a couple different things; first of all, mirror doppelganger may have been truthful all along and that maybe there was a deeper-rooted cause to my pain, in the form of darkness. Secondly, this dark evil thing was permanently attached to him. No matter what, that shadow was always there, feeding him evil thoughts, bad choices and hate. The shadow was as very much a part of my doppelgangers existence as me not being able to live without oxygen.

But how co0uld something like this possibly be defeated? If all of our mirror doppelgangers have an evil shadow always there causing harm and destruction in our lives, how can we stop it from whispering bad decisions or choices into our head and thoughts? I pondered on this for a long time.

I first decided to try and smother it with light and goodness. I began to look in the mirror and tell my doppelganger that he was an incredible person and that he could do anything. I told him that he could become the greatest guitar player that ever lived if he really wanted to. I told him he could even be better than Eddie Van Halen. Every day I would feed ego into the mirror until he began to think that he “was” better than Eddie Van Halen. After a while, ego turned him greedy and self-centered. It appeared I was trying to fight a shadow with light, but only making it grow bigger.

One night while walking home, I was watching mirror doppelganger match me, step for step along a buildings glass window. But in between each street lamp, the shadow was gone. “Of course,” I thought. Shadow can only be snuffed out by smothering it with shadow. Darkness can only be defeated by understanding what it is and why it is the way it is

I went home and looked in the mirror that same night and explained the situation to mirror doppelganger. I explained to him that life will always be full of choices; some good, some bad. In order to defeat the dark shadow that whispers in his ear, I told him that he needs to understand it. He needs to figure out why the shadow is trying to make him make those bad decisions, why is it making him feel that hate towards a person, etc. And then by understanding it’s evil in that way, He can better know when to avoid its dark whispers, and ultimately make the best choices in life.

That shadow will always be there, but now I/we know how to better prevent it from causing harm. There have been several times where the shadow of someone else’s mirror doppelganger tried to get me to make bad choices by getting its owner to cause me harm. But instead of retaliating against said person with hate and violence, I thought about, and understood “why” they did what they did. And in turn I was able to make the right choice regarding that person.