It Takes Two to Tango and Other Twos

In celebration of my 2nd year in HubPages, this piece is about "two".

Do you ever wonder why "two" is significant? Why do we have so many twos in nature?

Let us look at our own selves and start at the physical level.

Why do we have two of almost everything in our body for example? We have a pair of eyes, ears, nostrils, lungs, kidneys, testis, ovaries, arms, legs, hands, and feet. Our brain has two hemispheres and even our heart has 2 atria and 2 ventricles.

If we move from the physical to the cellular and molecular levels, our chromosomes are paired and our own DNA is actually a double helix with paired nitrogenous bases.

In the chemical world around us, oxygen always occurs as a double molecule, that's why its symbol is O2.

Water is a partnership between oxygen and hydrogen and carbon dioxide is a partnership between carbon and oxygen. We also have acids and bases as well as positive and negative ions.

In other aspects of our environment, we have the sun and moon that rise and set, and the tides of the sea that ebb and flow. Then we have day and night, cold and warm, light and shadow, black and white, red and green and other complementary colors.

In our society, we have good and evil, sinners and saints, angels and devils, man and woman, male and female, boy and girl, mother and father, hero and villain, yin and yang, life and death, left and right, true and false, strong and weak.

We play hide and seek, ask "heads or tails?" when we toss coins, say "truth or consequence?" when we spin the bottle, "trick or treat" when we go out during Halloween.

We also say, "deal or no deal" and we can win or loss.

In the computer world, we have "input - output", "soft copy and hard copy". While in business, we either "sink or swim" or "buy and sell".

Here are some terms that indicate two: duo, dual, doublet, couplet, match, pair, twin, brace, couple, duet, tandem, dyad, twosome, distich, match, mate, and partner.

If you can think of other "two" words, please share with us.

Still thinking of "two" I tried listing the most popular pairs in history, in entertainment and in mythology and here are some I listed.

Adam and Eve

Cain and Abel

Mary and Joseph

Sodom and Gomorrah

Samson and Delilah

Peter and Paul

Watson and Crick

Sonny and Cher

Donnie and Marie

Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse

Donald Duck and Daisy Duck

Barbie and Ken

Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde

Peter Pan and Wendy

Beauty and the Beast

Snow White and Prince Charming

Anna and the King

Oh, I could go on and on with the pairs but I'd rather ask you to add more pairs that you can think of. How about it?

So going back to my original question, why is there such a predominance of twos, or duality in nature?

Allow me to be a little scientific in my explanation here.

In the realm of chemistry (and we are actually all made up of chemicals), all atoms with the exception of the Noble gases, have incomplete valence shells and are thus unstable. To complete their shell and become stable, they tend to react with other atoms.

So oxygen atom either pairs with another oxygen atom to form the O2 or molecular oxygen, or it pairs up with hydrogen to form water, a very stable compound. Carbon dioxide which is a partnership between carbon and oxygen is also another very stable compound.

In human beings and most other animals, most body parts are always paired.

A scientist once quipped; this pairing thing is simply nature being redundant. However, if you look at the stability explanation, I believe it also applies here.

Can you just imagine what will happen if you only have one leg or one arm, one hand or one thumb, one eye or one ear?

And, don't marriages lend some kind of stability to our society? The formation of a family through the mother and father is I think one of the stabilizing forces in our society.

And in the "cheesy department", somebody once wrote: "we have two eyes, two ears and two lungs, why do we have only one heart?"

The answer is: "because we have to look for another heart to make us one!"

See, that is cheesy!

Why is my second year in HubPages important to me?

Why indeed?

Well, it's because I have more than doubled my number of friends and followers. Now, I can no longer list you as what I did during my first anniversary. If I do that, I will end up having a hub with just names.

And although I still have not learned how to earn like several people here in HP, I can say I have more than doubled my earnings compared with what I earned during my first year! It's actually much more than two cents!

So to all of you, I say a double "thank you" and I wish you double blessings!

It surely takes two to tango! Let's dance and celebrate!

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