I Made a Mistake

“I made a mistake” is four of the hardest words to speak, but I have cut it down to just two words; “Yes dear.” For some, saying yes dear is like pulling eyeteeth. For me saying yes dear is like letting honey flow from by lips. If it is your wife you are saying it to the fight is over before it even started. If it is a girlfriend, her clothes fall instantly to the floor. If it is a guy you say it to, laughter breaks out (unless he is robbing you and then shoots you in the brain (or worse) for coming on to him). There are instances where silence is better. In any case, admitting to mistakes takes guts, but the rewards are always better than blaming someone else.

As a young guy, I always blamed my identical twin brother when I screwed up, and he did likewise. For instance, there was the time when my brother used my hunting license and shot a deer in a game reserve. Or the time I used his drivers license when I got a ticket for almost knocking a California HP off his motorcycle because I had my surfboard crammed sideways through the back windows of my car. Man was that cop pissed. “But, officer, I was in a hurry; surf’s up!” Fortunately, it was only a short period of time before I got my driver’s license back because I turned 18. My brother had to wait too. The Highway Patrolman tore his license up on the spot!

One time my twin and I blamed the Feeney brothers who lived at the next ranch for smoking in the barn after dad found our stash of matches and Pall Malls that mom smoked. He drove us up to the Feeneys’ ranch house with us being bumped up and down in the back of his pickup only to find out that we all had been smoking in the barn. This time we did not get spanked because we were too busy barfing everywhere. I didn’t touch another cigarette for 25 years.

The worst time was when my twin used my driver’s license and showed it to the Dad of a girl he had met a week earlier in high school. When he picked her up for a drive-in movie date, the father wanted to make sure he had a license to drive. Later in the evening brother and daughter got cozy and she became pregnant. You should have seen the look on my mother’s face when she got the call that I knocked up someone’s teenage daughter. In fact, you should have seen the look on my face when she slapped it. Brother heard the screaming from mom and high-tailed it out the back door. Of course, the real culprit was discovered later and the shotgun wedding went off without a hitch. In this case saying, “I made a mistake,” wouldn’t change anything.

I like to think that now I can admit to mistakes openly and freely. I can even admit to the mistakes of others if the situation warrants it. Sometimes you can defuse problems quickly by using broad shoulders to help someone else save face. Besides, they then owe you free lunches for a week. I’m not talking McDs’…I’m talking Pizza Hut for sure!

I’m just saying,

Mittster

Identical Twinship

What does it really mean to be an identical twin? For me, it means sharing my life with my very best male friend right down to the molecular level. When we talk on the phone, it is like listening to my voice in an echo chamber. When we were younger it used to bother me, but now I find it amusing. Sometimes when I listen to myself talk, I think it is my brother’s voice I hear. Our mother always had to ask which son it was when we would call her. That had to be frustrating for a mother, among many other things.

My brother and I were not very close growing up. With us, being twins gave sibling rivalry a new meaning. We used to fight like cats and dogs. Unlike pictures of male and female twins who reveled in dressing alike, we were determined not to look alike in any manner, shape or form. Our attitude caused great discourse with our mother who would be ecstatic seeing her boys dressed alike to the Ts. As for us, we would just glare at each other with mayhem in mind. Mom finally gave up on the fashion statements about the time we graduated into junior high school. This was a good thing because we started looking at girls while we were experiencing interesting sensations behind our zippers.

We soon discovered that we had different tastes in the opposite sex. This enabled us to drift apart socially and thus spare us intense rivalry while in high school. As we traveled separate paths in young adulthood, we remained close in a surprising way. Call it psychic, sixth sense, or whatever, we still communicated via the hidden language of identical twins. When we were little, we had our own language that confounded doctors. We also had simultaneous dreams and would awake comparing notes. We were connected mentally no matter the physical distance between us, and this remains true even today.

My bro and I are approaching old age like a runaway freight train and life is catching up to us fast. Brother has been diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer and is fighting for his life. We were not prepared for the time when life would be short, and the prospect that our final days would be over sooner than later. I guess we thought we would live forever and would not have to deal with one of us passing. The thought scares me no end because I don’t want my brother to suffer the pain and agony of passing from this disease. Thank God for medical technology that will prolong his life and that when his time comes, he won’t suffer like our loved ones who passed before new technologies could help them.

One the other hand, I am comforted with the knowledge that we cannot really be separated. He is part of my heart and mind – our atoms will be forever connected speaking the special language of twins. I will follow my twin wherever he goes and we will be united forever in Devine Love and Peace.

Write on,

Mittster

Just Like Me

What a twin ride it has been, with my brother and I running down the road of life at break neck speed, stopping only rarely to smell the roses. We started life kicking and screaming, and I am sure that is how it will end someday, our bodies bruised and broken, but our spirits high and wild as we run headlong into the next world.

I don’t think anyone can really understand the bond between identical twins. It’s called mirror image twinship; everything is the same, but opposite. It is like looking into a mirror while holding a book. The image and book are identical, but the writing is backward and unreadable. So it is with identical twins. One is doing well in life, while the other is struggling and lost. The one doing well tries to help the down and out twin by mirroring the behavior causing the problem. Once the good twin starts acting badly, the bad twin starts behaving again and climbs back up the ladder of success, while the other struggles to find their way back to whence he or she came.

It is indeed strange behavior, but I am convinced it is caused by the constant struggle to find one’s own identity. It’s not always easy being two people with one identity going in two different directions at the same time. This explains why when we were growing up, one would be on top the world while the other would be buried beneath and always in turmoil. We switched roles back and forth until adulthood, at which time we were able to live separate lives in different locations.

We have really never been apart intuitively or mentally. The connection is much deeper than husband and wife love, parent and child love, family love or any other kind of love. Identical twins are hardwired together and the wire stretches around the world. The wire cannot be cut by anyone, including the twins themselves. Even death cannot break the bond, because the mirror image lives inside both. I suspect the invisible bond lasts for eternity.

Would I change my twin life if I could? Not on your life – the journey has been fantastic and the best is yet to come. Our relationship has matured right alone with us, and I look forward to riding the wave until it fades into the beach and we lay on the hot, white sand, looking up into the heavens, thankful that we are still together as identical twins.

Write on,

Mittster