UNDER THE MICROSCOPE

NEW SPECIMENS OLD SPECIMENS THE SCIENTIST MY LOG CONTACT ME
2001-08-05 - 7:37 a.m.

MISS CALIFORNIA AND MISS NEW YORK

As Kathleen McCall points out, one of the mysteries of life is how the products of the unions of exactly the same two people can be so different. While both products may be perfectly wonderful, each in their own way, the process must drive God�s quality control folk absolutely nuts. I can see them now, suspecting that they must really be in hell because their time on the line at Ford was easier than this job.

My girls do not look alike, think alike, or act alike. Kat has cheekbones, blond hair, blue eyes, and legs that do not know when to quit. Day-Hay is petite and dark with long, long dark lashes framing mysterious dark eyes. Kat sees the world as a painting, a play, or a special musical composition of her making. Her world calls for drama and lots of it. Day-Hay sees the world as a practical problem in search of her special solution. Her world calls for analysis and action. Kat ambulates while Day-Hay darts. Kat talks, Day-Hay watches.

Because they�re still kids, my girls hold on to the notion that fair treatment is the same treatment. (Actually, I know plenty of adults who hold to the same juvenile notion.) Because they�re growing, they can see occasionally that the same treatment is not a good idea although they usually see it when they come out on the �better� side. Day-Hay, who requires little sleep, is as sure that it is fair that she get to stay up as late as a teenager as Kat, who requires much sleep, is sure that it is not fair that her little sister is allowed to stay up as late as she is. Day-Hay is as sure that it is not fair that I am spending a lot of time on Kat�s room when Kat isn�t even here as Kat is sure that it is fair because Day-Hay�s room was redone once and hers wasn�t.

My mother long ago dubbed them Miss California and Miss New York. They�re both beauties�inside and out---of different kinds. Miss California has a more traditional beauty to her, cool and dramatic. Miss New York has a more ethnic beauty, exotic and intense. Which one is properly Miss America depends on the judge and on the day (and whether either of them has been participating in the Who-Can-Annoy-Mother-Most Competition.)

Sometimes I look at Day-Hay and wonder what it would have been like to have two of her. When I was pregnant with her, she had an identical twin up until late in the fourth month or early in the fifth month of my pregnancy. I know that her twin was identical because they were same sac, same placenta twins. Yet, thinking back to my childhood, I�ve known identical twins who were not all that alike in the behavior and thinking department. Most likely, I would not have had one Miss California and two Miss New Yorks. No, most likely, I�d have Miss California, Miss New York, and, for all I know, Miss Texas, complete with twirling, flaming batons.

Maybe they are different because they don�t come from the same mother, not really. Both of them come from mothers who desperately wanted babies but the woman who conceived Kat worked full-time, lived in Brooklyn, and wore those blouses with the little bows at the neck. The woman who conceived Day-Hay worked a few hours a week, lived in the rust belt, and mainly wore jeans.

Whatever the reason for it, my girls are as different as the two coasts of this country�and I wouldn�t want it any other way.

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