Thoughts about...
I was just thinking about kissing and all of its many forms and meanings. It so interesting to think that this simple meeting of body parts can shape-shift so easily depending on how and when a kiss is delivered - but, more importantly than those two aspects, it is by whom it is delivered that changes most everything.
Most other cultures greet with a kissing-form - on one cheek, on both, sometimes three kisses (right, left, right - gotta love the Dutch!). Most Americans, when seeing two men greet each other in this kissing fashion, think it's "gay" and their stupidity through insecurity and homophobia get in the way of them just looking at a cultural difference.
On the other hand, when the butt-licking, shit-eating four-legged "man's best friend" licks a guy from chin to forehead, he thinks it's the greatest gift ever! Now, I love dogs - I'll play fetch and tug-o-war and wrestle with them... but the whole licking of the face thing, no thank you! But, I still giggle when it happens... or do the big exaggerated "Gee, thanks" while wiping my face off. But I don't mind the dog getting one little lick in because it's love - you know someone is excited to see you right at that moment!
There are the family kisses: your perverted uncle who tells everyone to keep their tongue in their month before kissing them, the aunt who holds your head in place to deliver a kiss on the lips when you are used to turning your head to give the cheek, the newest baby of the family who everyone keeps trying to teach how to kiss when really everyone is being just slimed by baby slobber and formula. These kisses are all wonderful because they are part of your family, part of who you are.
Perhaps the friendship kisses come in this category - though they don't seem to happen as frequently, they are still just as comfortable as the family ones. Even an ex-lover-become-friend, whom you never would have thought could have kisses that were nothing more than a comfortable greeting or departure, can be a comfort to kiss with a brief peck on the lips. An interesting kiss is of course the kiss of death (those who have actually watched the Godfather movies, am I calling this the correct name?) - a kiss with a completely different composition of meaning. As far as I can tell, this is a family-friend-and-enemy kiss that is unwanted... a kiss to be feared.
As are the last category of kiss - the one that each of us wants to experience at some point but which can lead to so many heartaches when followed.
These other kisses are the sideline event, the t-shirts and iron-on badges at the main event, the sprinkles on the banana split. Because, in the end, we are all wanting to know the full power of the kiss; we all want to have that kiss that - for just a moment - makes it seem as though everything else stops and ceases to matter. How many people (well, let's be honest - women) were wrapped up in five or six seasons of "Friends" because Ross and Rachel had that wonderful first kiss? Of course, the second kiss with the rain falling in the background just hooked all others who had missed the significance of the first one. The movie "The Notebook" is an amazingly beautiful movie, both story-wise and cinematographically. However, I know the reason that half the women who bought it now have it so that - just occasionally - they can throw it in the DVD player, skip through 13 chapters (I just looked in the jacket of my own copy) and get to the rain-soaked, passion-filled, oh-my-I-can't-watch-this-movie-with-my-friends-because-I-just-got-turned-on kiss between the two main characters.
We all want it - we want to be taken by surprise, caught off guard in a place where we don't want to put up guards, caught up in a kiss that makes the world stop for just a second. And then, it melts the thoughts from your brain - all save one: This feels good! Kisses that are meant can jelly your legs, explode your heart, lava your brain and sear with scorching heat your desire - you need to know this person in the most intimate way because something about them already tells you that you do know them. You can feel the energy of need pulsating through your veins, moving through your extremities; you wonder if there is actual light coming through your toes, the top of your head and your fingertips as you touch the next person to become your lover. You don't even think to hope that he is feeling the same way because there is no way, no possible way, to feel this much about another person unless it was flowing back and forth - the energy is too strong for just one person to be producing and harnessing it alone. He must be in the same place as you, helping you to be the most beautiful, passionate person ever - he must feel what you are feeling!
Sometimes, it's unfortunate that people can't just stop that kiss after a while and say "WOW! That was an amazing kiss! I know that it can't get any better than that, so I thank you for that, but I don't think we should ever do it again. Friends? Good!"
Though sex is nice, and can be amazing and great, this one kiss tells a person that the sex will come - and that it will be amazing and great. However, there is no way to predict or anticipate this kiss, the kiss that will turn two ordinary human beings into the heat, the passion, the energy that makes being human feel so good. At least for a while... but then, it's like a drug and you just need more of it.
BRING ON THE PASSION!!! (*slaps veins in arm*)