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TWO IS BUTTER THAN ONE
My sister and I wore our matching, bright yellow raincoats everywhere, regardless of whether it was raining or not. We wore them so much, that a kid started calling us The Butter Twins, and for years, the name stuck.
We are 14 months apart, and even though she was one grade ahead of me, we shared the same classroom and teacher from the time I hit third grade straight through high school. We went to a Chicago Public School on the south side, and with only five kids in my third grade class, they combined us with the fourth graders, using the same teacher for both.
It wasn’t supposed to happen, but at the end of that school year, instead of moving the five third graders up to fourth, we skipped it altogether and went right to fifth with the fourth graders.
From that time on, my sister and I shared everything, from a bedroom to our friends.
I guess you could say we were the closest thing to twins without actually being them.
The funny thing is, we’re complete opposites, on the inside and out. In college, we worked at the same restaurant and the kitchen crew called me “the evil Jeannie” after the dark haired sister on the TV show I Dream of Jeannie…my sister was blonde.
To this day, I’m hoping the nickname was based solely on our looks and not on my actions.
Our interests are opposite too. My sister has always worked in the corporate world, and I have mostly chosen to be self-employed, but despite all our differences, we were raised by the same mom who taught us we weren’t the only ones who mattered.
We had to respect other people, other creatures and the environment we all shared.
She taught us that no action was too small, from skipping products packaged in single-use plastic to turning off the water when we washed the dishes. That’s because when enough of us make those small choices, they turn into something big.
Last week I was racing to get out of the rain, when I saw two kids in bright yellow raincoats walking to school. It brought me back to the day, decades ago, when that kid called us The Butter Twins, and I realized, maybe he did me a favor.
Because as much as we disliked the nickname, being one of the Butter Twins taught me that there’s power in being part of a pair, and even more power in being part of a group of millions.
That’s why the little choices we make matter. Like switching from shampoo in a bottle to shampoo in a bar. Reaching for the reusable Swedish Dishcloth instead of a paper towel and buying something that will last instead of something that will be thrown away.
One swap may not feel like much, but put enough of us together who are making them, and suddenly it's not so small.
What we purchase, and how we live matters…you butter believe it.
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