Here is an uninspired tangent. Read on anyway. Hope you like it.
Like. I like him and I am like him mean different things, but isn't it funny how people tend to like those just like them? Mom pals with rugged jogging strollers push tiny tots of the same birth month, fratties in madras pledge for life, and Betty Page haired grrrls clump together. Sure they have something in common, but is it more than just superficial traits? Do we need to have something in common other than say ethics and morals... or do we even need the same moral set? I tend to gravitate towards those of high intelligence, but are they like me? My friends tend to be open minded, intelligent, and witty, but superficially they are diverse in ages, colors, sizes, sexual orientations, and dress. I have well heeled friends, those forever flip flopping, worn Birkenstock owners, Clarks wearing pragmatists, and those in chunky countercultural galoshes and clodhoppers. We are friends because of a connection, not because they share my taste for beatnik basic black or because we live in the same floorplan or even because we came from the same warped little dusty town.
Am I being romantic and unsensible? Maybe I am trying hard to remain a rugged individualist. Should I want to belong to a group that is just like me? Maybe I already a part of a group of people that is marked "other" and "etc." Maybe people evolve to be more like each other and perhaps that is what I am observing. Sure my oldest and dearest friends and I share things in common, but did we evolve that way or did we by fate find each other in this crazy world?
Self-depreciating or not, I like people unlike me, because they teach me about myself. They unknowingly point out my hang ups, desires, strengths, and weaknesses. I like them without wanting to become like them. Like. Similarities are fine, but I dislike similes.
