photo credit: Strupey via photopin cc

Leora Eisen is the writer and producer of a documentary film that recently aired on Canadian television.  The film, called Two of a Kind, portrays her life experience with her identical twin sister, Linda, who tragically passed away a few years ago and depicts interviews and discussions with world-renowned scientists and researchers who study how identical twins are different rather than alike.  The film helps to explain why Linda died from leukemia, and Leora remains healthy in spite of sharing the same DNA.

Leora’s interview about the film with CBC Radio One is poignant and gut-wrenching.  She talks about the inexplicable love that she and Linda felt for one another.  She articulates the essence of the exquisite connection so many twins experience.  Leora describes the ongoing emotional pain she suffers missing Linda.  She says that she dreams about her every night, has conversations with her all the time, and feels as if Linda is with her always.  She realizes that working on this project has kept her closely connected to Linda; now that the film is complete, she feels as if she is losing Linda all over again.

Leora mentions that she was initially surprised to learn that not all twins feel so lovingly connected.  Her research and interviews with many twins and experts opened her eyes to the fact that some twins do not share a mystically profound, caring attachment.  Her filmmaking journey showed her that twins appreciate being perceived through a lens of singularity and uniqueness. The genetic research generated by the comparative study of identical and fraternal twins that Leora’s film explores may turn out to be the definitive factor that enables our society to value twin differences and variances more than their similarities.

Please listen to Leora’s interview—it should not be missed—and let me know what you think.