Everyone has two sides. Or do they?

"Everyone has two sides," she enlightened me with her wisdom. Her beautiful blue eyes wide open and focused intently. Dozens of icy stalactites radiated outward from her pupils, piercing me to the core and engraving those words into my brain.

Two parts influence and one part axiom, I agreed. Weeks later those words etched with a blue flame began to weigh on my mind. Do people really have two sides? Do we always put on a face to match our various activities (work, home, social)?

She was referring to two members of management for our client who had previously engaged in epic warfare in the conference room. Two major superpowers, one above the other in chain of command, having an all out discussion concerning an issue of repeated controversy which directly affects our operation. This will be winner take all in the end. This time the higher-up won the battle, but the war is far from over. They strive for the same cause, but in different ways.

“Everyone has two sides.”

My counter-point is that we only have one side -- the one which shows who we really are. Maybe most people are never stressed to their boiling point, the point in which one shows what they're really made of. Maybe we are sometimes bitter or cruel, but some people refuse to show that face to others on a daily basis. Maybe it's an act of courtesy, to not take it out on those around us who have not wronged us. Maybe it really is a two-faced society. So if we have two faces...

“Is this the real me? A better question would be ‘Is this the real you?’ Or are we shallow to the core?”