That first kiss between two people that eventually become lovers. Think about it. Insert your memories - reminisce to the most amazing kiss or for that matter any kiss you've ever had. How did it make you feel? High? Drunk? Were you feverish? Did your cheeks flush a lovely crimson red? Were powerful sensations raging through your body? Did you ache inside? Did it stir you? Was there music? Or silence? Did the world around you cease to exist? Could you feel the other person truly touch you with their kiss? Were their lips soft and moist? Was it the invitation you had so hoped it would be?
I love kissing. I mean I absolutely love, love, love, kissing. It is one of the best parts of intimacy, it can even be the most exciting or satisfying. It's the precursor for everything. It's how you know if there's chemistry. It's how you know if the person kissing you is going to excite and elicit desire and waken you. It's delicious and yummy and it takes you to a whole other place. And if the kiss melts you, I believe everything else that follows or accompanies that kiss will also. A kiss can change everything. And for me, the kiss says it all.
Kissing has got to be more than just a chemical reaction. And there's so much more than just erotic kissing, kissing is how we express love, gratitude, sympathy, even a simple hello. A kiss on the forehead or the cheek can hold a deeper meaning. Kissing your child goodnight or seeing him off to school with just a little kiss on the cheek. A child receives a message and it's not just affection from his parents or siblings or family but a reassurance of love. In fact, it's said that affection can be the cause of kissing.
But where did kissing come from? When did it originate? Who was the first to figure it out? Anthropologists are divided on the school of thought here...One, believing it is instinctual and intuitive. Two, that it evolved from kiss feeding. (a process used by mothers to feed their infants by passing chewed food to their babies' mouths) some 3,500 years ago. The earliest record of a kiss or kissing like behavior was in Vedas, Sanskrit scriptures that informed on Hinduism, Buddhism and the Jain religion. (think Kama Sutra) It's believed by some scholars that kissing spread quickly to other parts of the world after Alexander the Great and his army conquered parts of Punjab in Northern India in 326 BC.
"Both lip and tongue kissing are mentioned in the poetry by Sumer.
My lips are too small, they know not to kiss.
My precious sweet, lying by my heart,
one by one "tonguemaking," one by one.
When my sweet precious, my heart, had lain down too,
each of them in turn kissing with the tongue, each in turn"
"Kissing is described in the surviving Ancient Egyptian love poetry from the New Kingdom, found on papyri excavated at Deir el-Medina:
And his father Isaac said unto him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son.
Kissing is even used as ritual. The kissing of a crucifix or Joan of Arc kissing the Sword of Liberation. It ancient Rome a kiss served to seal agreements. "sealed with a kiss". The social status of a Roman citizen was determined by the part of the body on which he or she could kiss the emperor, from cheek to foot. (how interesting is that?!!!)
Within the natural world of animals there are numerous analogies, notes Crawley, such as "the billing of birds, the cataglottism of pigeons and the antennal play of some insects." Even among higher animals such as the dog, cat and bear, similar behavior is noted." Kissing is everywhere....
The kiss is so much more though. It's a gateway drug!!! Honestly, a kiss can be loving, comforting, awkward, intense, boring and even life-changing. But more than all of it - listen to this... it's scientifically proven to reduce high blood pressure, burns calories, fights cavities, help get rid of cramps and headaches, boosts self-esteem and releases happy hormones, it even helps by giving a pseudo-facelift because of all the facial muscles you use.
During a kiss, natural antibiotics are secreted in the saliva. Saliva also contains a natural anesthetic that helps relieve pain. Do you know what this tells me? It tells me just how good kissing truly is...
"A kiss is a lovely trick, designed by nature, to stop words when speech becomes superfluous." Ingrid Bergman
"I didn't want to kiss you goodbye - that was the trouble - I wanted to kiss you goodnight. And there's a lot of difference." Ernest Hemingway
"Ancient lovers believed that a kiss would literally unite their souls, because the spirit was said to be carried in one's breath." Eve Glickman
"Always kiss your children goodnight, even if they're already asleep." H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
"Kissing is like real estate. Location, Location, Location." Anonymous
"A man's kiss is his signature." Mae West
"If you think of me out of the blue, it's all the kisses I've blown catching up to you." Anonymous
"A man had given all other bliss,
And all his worldly worth for this,
To waste his whole heart in one kiss
Upon her perfect lips."
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Now...what with all the songs, poems, stories through-out history that stands to celebrate the illustrious kiss?? Kissing is truly worth celebrating on multiple levels for a multitude of reasons. So go ahead, kiss as often as you can. There's just far too many reasons why you should...
^ Kramer, Samuel Noah (1981). History Begins at Sumer (3rd revised. ed.). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 72ff. ISBN 978-0812212761.
^ "Ancient Poetry". TheMagentaHornet.com.
^ "Health Benefits of Kissing".
Homer, Iliad, Bk. 24. Trans. Samuel Butler.Herodotus, Histories 1.134.
Herodotus, An Account of Egypt.
I love kissing. I mean I absolutely love, love, love, kissing. It is one of the best parts of intimacy, it can even be the most exciting or satisfying. It's the precursor for everything. It's how you know if there's chemistry. It's how you know if the person kissing you is going to excite and elicit desire and waken you. It's delicious and yummy and it takes you to a whole other place. And if the kiss melts you, I believe everything else that follows or accompanies that kiss will also. A kiss can change everything. And for me, the kiss says it all.
Kissing has got to be more than just a chemical reaction. And there's so much more than just erotic kissing, kissing is how we express love, gratitude, sympathy, even a simple hello. A kiss on the forehead or the cheek can hold a deeper meaning. Kissing your child goodnight or seeing him off to school with just a little kiss on the cheek. A child receives a message and it's not just affection from his parents or siblings or family but a reassurance of love. In fact, it's said that affection can be the cause of kissing.
But where did kissing come from? When did it originate? Who was the first to figure it out? Anthropologists are divided on the school of thought here...One, believing it is instinctual and intuitive. Two, that it evolved from kiss feeding. (a process used by mothers to feed their infants by passing chewed food to their babies' mouths) some 3,500 years ago. The earliest record of a kiss or kissing like behavior was in Vedas, Sanskrit scriptures that informed on Hinduism, Buddhism and the Jain religion. (think Kama Sutra) It's believed by some scholars that kissing spread quickly to other parts of the world after Alexander the Great and his army conquered parts of Punjab in Northern India in 326 BC.
"Both lip and tongue kissing are mentioned in the poetry by Sumer.
My lips are too small, they know not to kiss.
My precious sweet, lying by my heart,
one by one "tonguemaking," one by one.
When my sweet precious, my heart, had lain down too,
each of them in turn kissing with the tongue, each in turn"
"Kissing is described in the surviving Ancient Egyptian love poetry from the New Kingdom, found on papyri excavated at Deir el-Medina:
Finally I will drink life from your lips
and wake up from this ever lasting sleep.
The wisdom of the earth in a kiss
and everything else in your eyes.
I kiss her before everyone
that they all may see my love.[8]
And when her lips are pressed to mine
I am made drunk and need not wine.
When we kiss, and her warm lips half open,
I fly cloud-high without beer!
His kisses on my lips, my breast, my hair..."The earliest reference to kissing in the Old Testament is in Genesis 27:26, when Jacob deceives his father to obtain his blessing:
...Come! Come! Come! And kiss me when I die,
For life, compelling life, is in thy breath;
And at that kiss, though in the tomb I lie,
I will arise and break the bands of Death.[9] "
And his father Isaac said unto him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son.
Kissing is even used as ritual. The kissing of a crucifix or Joan of Arc kissing the Sword of Liberation. It ancient Rome a kiss served to seal agreements. "sealed with a kiss". The social status of a Roman citizen was determined by the part of the body on which he or she could kiss the emperor, from cheek to foot. (how interesting is that?!!!)
Within the natural world of animals there are numerous analogies, notes Crawley, such as "the billing of birds, the cataglottism of pigeons and the antennal play of some insects." Even among higher animals such as the dog, cat and bear, similar behavior is noted." Kissing is everywhere....
The kiss is so much more though. It's a gateway drug!!! Honestly, a kiss can be loving, comforting, awkward, intense, boring and even life-changing. But more than all of it - listen to this... it's scientifically proven to reduce high blood pressure, burns calories, fights cavities, help get rid of cramps and headaches, boosts self-esteem and releases happy hormones, it even helps by giving a pseudo-facelift because of all the facial muscles you use.
During a kiss, natural antibiotics are secreted in the saliva. Saliva also contains a natural anesthetic that helps relieve pain. Do you know what this tells me? It tells me just how good kissing truly is...
"A kiss is a lovely trick, designed by nature, to stop words when speech becomes superfluous." Ingrid Bergman
"I didn't want to kiss you goodbye - that was the trouble - I wanted to kiss you goodnight. And there's a lot of difference." Ernest Hemingway
"Ancient lovers believed that a kiss would literally unite their souls, because the spirit was said to be carried in one's breath." Eve Glickman
"Always kiss your children goodnight, even if they're already asleep." H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
"Kissing is like real estate. Location, Location, Location." Anonymous
"A man's kiss is his signature." Mae West
"If you think of me out of the blue, it's all the kisses I've blown catching up to you." Anonymous
"A man had given all other bliss,
And all his worldly worth for this,
To waste his whole heart in one kiss
Upon her perfect lips."
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Now...what with all the songs, poems, stories through-out history that stands to celebrate the illustrious kiss?? Kissing is truly worth celebrating on multiple levels for a multitude of reasons. So go ahead, kiss as often as you can. There's just far too many reasons why you should...
^ Kramer, Samuel Noah (1981). History Begins at Sumer (3rd revised. ed.). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 72ff. ISBN 978-0812212761.
^ "Ancient Poetry". TheMagentaHornet.com.
^ "Health Benefits of Kissing".
Homer, Iliad, Bk. 24. Trans. Samuel Butler.Herodotus, Histories 1.134.
Herodotus, An Account of Egypt.
That's amazing! Your words flow together so perfectly, your so passionate about such an important part of life we take for granted. Thank you for writing that, I would love to read more of your work.
ReplyDeleteThat was beautiful and so insightful you are an amazing writer I love all the references at the bottom I am very impressed
ReplyDelete