A colleague of mine shared this inspiring article about Judith Scott, an acclaimed sculptor who made abstract works of art out of fibers and found objects. Judith died ten years ago. She was born with Down syndrome, was deaf, and lived most of her life in an institution. Judith was sent to an institution at age seven. In the article, her twin sister, Joyce, explained how devastated she felt, missing her playmate, having few opportunities to visit her, and being confused […]
Tag Archives: siblings
Multiple Marital Mayhem
Suppose you are preparing to marry your soul mate, only to belatedly realize that this person is not truly yours alone? That may be because your mate’s soul is already intricately intertwined with others: a twin, triplets, perhaps a group of quadruplets. This quote is the opening paragraph of a New York Times article that appeared in the titled Wed Once, but Seeing Triple: Marrying a Twin (and Her Sister) by Alyson Krueger. Krueger writes about the sadness and confusion […]
My Twin Journey Poem
Katie is an identical twin who has just graduated from the University of Gloucestershire in Gloucestershire, England. Her dissertation is entitled “My Twinship Journey: A Study that Explores How My Twin Sister and I Use Our Language to Express Our Identities in Relation to the Membership Category of Twinship.” Her research highlights their ongoing differentiation as both sisters confront and work through issues of identity and separateness. Katie describes how language choice and speech intonations recorded in separate interviews with […]
FOMO
I had no idea what my children meant when I heard them saying that their friend suffered from FOMO. They explained the definition of the acronym as “Fear of Missing Out.” This anxiety about missing out on something popped into my head after I listened to a mother of six-year-old twins equivocate about her decision to send only one of her daughters to a ballet class. The daughter who had expressed an interest in taking ballet told her mom that […]
Limelight, Love, and Singularity
A father of twins raised a poignant dilemma during one of my recent presentations. He feels terribly uncomfortable praising one twin for his special talent and not being able to do the same for his other son. Specifically, he is uncomfortable complimenting one son’s musical skills because his brother does not demonstrate the same proficiency. He feels guilty and unclear about treating each one differently. That this dad equates praising one son as diminishing the other illustrates how much this […]