A Matter of Perception by Konnie Enos

Have you ever noticed how the vehicles you see the most on the road are the same color or same make and model of your car? If you are thinking about young children, or have them in your life, you are more likely to notice them around you. The same goes for say, handicaps, or eye color. Really, anything close to you could be a focus for what you notice in the world. Your focus affects what you perceive the most.

For example, when I drive around in my car I happened to notice a lot of white cars or Chevrolet Cruzes. Guess what my car is. I’m also seeing children under the age of one in large numbers. Do you want to guess why?

Do you want to guess why we both notice twins?

Here are some facts.

The only multiple births in our area the week we were born were the two of us. When we were in high school and the local paper wanted to do a story on twins, there were only two sets in our high school and a total of four in the two local high schools. (The one set in our high school were fraternal, boy and girl set.)

We’ve been in the newspaper an additional time because we’re at least the fifth generation straight in our mother’s family who were twins.  

One time a stranger in the park where we were holding our Great Grandfather’s family reunion thought it was a twin convention. (One, this is our father’s side of the family. Two, I wasn’t even there. Bonnie was though.) We have a family picture, taken by our father, with at least four sets of identical twins in it. Only one set is boys. Three sets were dad’s cousins. The youngest set was Bonnie and me.

The last large reunion (Great, Great Grandpa’s family) I went to I counted at least half a dozen sets in attendance and knew of at least that many more not there or not both of them were there, us included, Bonnie wasn’t there.

You can see why we notice twins, all the time.

That’s why I noticed the senior lady pushing her double in a wheelchair when I was out shopping. That’s why I regularly spot twins when I’m out, usually kids with their parents. I think the senior ladies are the only time I’ve spotted adult twins. However, I have seen more than one video on Facebook showing a young child’s reaction to meeting their parent’s twin. (I so which we had videos of such events in our life.)

I’ve even noticed when people I know had twin grandchildren.

Recently a co-worker and I were talking about multiples. He has multiple sets in his family tree, though in his family it skipped a generation. He was, like so many people, assuming that old wives' tale was true. (Obviously not if you look at our family tree.)

He mentioned all the sets in his family. I believe it was three sets.

Without even knowing all the twins in my family by name, I can come up with that many in one generation on dad’s side of the family, and Bonnie and I are the fifth generation on our mom’s side.

I only mentioned to him that I was a twin too.

He commented that twins are becoming more and more common.

Yes, they are. Now if someone wanted to do an article on twins they could find more than four in two high schools. Look it up. New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois has a graduating 2020 class with 44 sets of twins and 1 set of triplets. (twin article)

There are more multiples in the world today. At least one reason for it is fertility treatments. Another reason is health care. I’m sure there are a number of twins today who would not have survived birth 50 years ago. I’m also sure that 50 years ago it was far more common for mothers to lose one baby and still be pregnant. Today they are more likely to be able to save both babies.

Therefore, there are more multiples today than there were even 30 years ago. However, it’s also true having multiples in your family is going to focus you on noticing them more than someone else might.

I see them everywhere and just have to smile when I do.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.