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velop with a right side and a left side. Two eyes, two ears, two nostrils,
two lips, two sets of teeth, two lobes to the brain, two to the lungs,
two arms, two hands, two legs, two feet ."
"One nose," I said.
She had heard this before. "The nose is only a work of flesh sur–
rounding two tunnels."
"One tongue," I said.
"Which has a top and a bottom and they're awfully different." She
put her tongue out at me.
"Five fingers on each hand."
"The thumb is in opposition to the others. The big toe used to be
in opposition to the foot."
We began to laugh. "Two testicles," I said, "but one penis."
"It's the weak link in my theory."
"One navel," I went on.
"You're awful," she said. "You're implacable."
"One head of hair."
"Which you part." She rumed my hair. We almost kissed again. It
was
delicious to be flirting with a third cousin who was a couple of
years older than me.
"Try to be solemn," she said. "There's really more evidence of du–
ality than singularity. I decided to take the next step. What if there are
not only two nostrils, two eyes, two lobes, and so forth, but two psy–
ches as well, and they are separately equipped. They
go
through life like
Siamese twins inside one person. Everthing that happens to one, happens
to the other. If one gets married, the other is along for the ride. Other–
wise, they are different. They can be just a little different, like identical
twins, or they can be vastly different, like good and evil." She stopped
for a nearer example. "Or optimism and pessimism. I'm going to choose
that because it's somewhat easier to discuss. Most things that happen to
us have optimistic overtones, and pessimistic possibilities. Suppose Alpha
and
Omega - for those are the two names I've finally applied to these
two psyches - one has to offer them some kind of name, and A and Z is
much too cold to live with - so, Alpha and Omega. It
is
pretentious,
but one does get used to it."
"You were going to give me an example," I said.
"Yes. All right. Let us say that Alpha tends to be optimistic in most
situations, whereas Omega is inclined to pessimism. Each experience that
comes their way is interpreted with different sensitivities, so to speak. Al–
pha picks up what might be positive in a specific situation; Omega an–
ticipates what could be lost. That bicameral mode of perception operates
for any duality you wish to invoke. Take night and day. Let me propose
that Omega is a little more responsive to nocturnal experiences than Al-
