![]() In the past, debating the evolutionary scientific premise that humans opt for partners who most resemble themselves (or their parents), I’ve laughed it off with a "Do I have a ginger beard, quill-sharp nose, and rosy skin like my husband?" I mean actually like my Dadu, with the same full head of silver hair and patrician facial features. At a rousing Bruce Springsteen concert in Birmingham last month, I was struck by a horrible thought - that the man I’d idolised for 40 years had begun to look like my late Dadu! I don’t mean grandfatherly in general none of us are getting any younger. That shock of recognition isn’t always as heartwarming, however. As a result, when I happen upon my daughter’s new avatar, so strikingly similar to my previous self, I am fleetingly befuddled by it am I looking at a doppelganger or a mirror image? How can I be standing here and over there as well? That she borrows liberally from my wardrobe, and not always with my permission, only strengthens these surreal impressions. In my mind’s eye, my daughter is still a child, and I look like I did a few years ago, before my newfound diabetes piled on the pounds. ![]() For a split-second I worried that my memory had deteriorated beyond redemption, only to realise that it wasn’t my picture at all that I was examining, but one of my rapidly-changing, now-teenage daughter! I spotted a snap of me, striking a pose in the stern of a boat, of which I had absolutely no recollection. Last summer was the first time it really caught my eye, as I flicked through family holiday photos on the island of Jersey in the English Channel. More and more, as they grow, I encounter myself in my children, but the persistence with which it happens doesn’t make the jolt any less forceful. I call it the shock of recognition, and it’s pretty much taken over my life. And unlike the tremors we’re all reeling from, this has been mostly delightful. But there’s been a different shock to my system that’s grown insistent over time. ![]() The tide of natural disasters, pandemics, and social anarchy of the last few years has been a shock to us all. ![]()
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