By Count Friedrich von Olsen
My butler, Hudson, recently came across a video of a child born with two heads. Both of them looked healthy enough, that is, they were crying, indeed screaming up a storm, as infants are wont to do. Among my first reaction was pity. Certainly, being bound up together like that must represent a major inconveninence. At some level, we all treasure our privacy, and for these two there will be precious little, or none, of that. And that would be but half of it…
Most of us are familiar with the story of Cheng and Eng, what the world has come to think of as the original Siamese Twins, although there were probably twins such as them before. Somehow they led pretty full lives, in ways, I am sure, more full than many of us, who are independenly bodied. Cheng and Eng married different women, had children, were productive. They were, indeed, remarkable..
I shed my pity and then took up considering the advantages. What I could do with an extra brain! There are but 24 hours in my day. What if I had 48? Four eyes are better than two. Others are constantly bringing to my belated attention my mistakes which my own eyes missed. With another companion constantly at my temple, I should never be, I fancy, lonely…
We are what we are, are we not? We all have limitations. We all have unique facilities, faculties, potentials and actualities. All represent something incredibly precious and meaningful…