I’ve always enjoyed kissing.
There’s just something magical about that moment of intimacy when two humans experience enough physical attraction to commit to the act. They find through chance, luck or intention, their faces close enough to feel the warmth of each other’s breath, decide to surrender to the gravitational pull, slowly close that final distance of an inch or two and consensually engage their softened lips in gentle compression. Literally lip locking. Breathless.
If the magic holds, the couple’s engaged eyes close, their teeth separate just enough to allow their respective tongues to enter the fray, their blind tips first tentatively touch in a fluttering introduction before pushing past one another in full commitment to exploration of the other’s oral lair as passion takes over.
Kissing is a gateway experience. If done right, it’s the couple’s first unintentional yet Pavlovian exchange of body fluid as a signal both are enjoying this experience. Their respective bodies release oxytocin, dopamine, serotonin, adrenaline, and norepinephrine — hormones that boost bonding, pleasure, and arousal, so if you remain engaged in the act of kissing long enough, the rest of your body parts signal that they want to enter the dancefloor and Tango. A promise of more fluid where that came from.
Just thinking about it leaves me breathless.
But it also makes me wonder when the very first kiss between humans occurred. How did it happen? Which primate in our ancestral tree came up with the idea that their lips provided more than a facial zip lock to keep your food from falling out of your mouth? Did it arise as part of the process of speech development, where lips were used to control and reduce the lung powered vibrations of our vocal cords into repeatable mouth sounds that became associated with items in the world around us. Did someone accidentally discover that their lips could provide sensual sensations and then decided to share that sensation with another of their species, by the only way they knew how, physical contact?
We know that our early ancestors understood sensual physical sensations, otherwise we would have ceased to exist.
But we also know that before we became completely bipedal, the sensual act of procreation could very easily occur without the partners’ faces ever passing in close gravitational proximity. Never forget that we are evolved animals and our mating instincts and practices were not much different than the rest of the creatures. In fairness, long after we learn to stand erect, and oftentimes immediately after, men will still default to faceless sex.
So, given the fact that most males remain a half step behind females on the emotional evolutionary scale, this suggests to me that the progenitor of that first kiss was a woman. A strong and confident woman. A woman who decided that she was an equal to her male counterpart and would look that male in the eyes before committing to any act of intimacy. She took the lead. She took control. She leaned in for that first kiss.
As a highly evolved male, I am forever thankful to that enlightened female.
And, as a result, I love to be on the receiving end of an initiated kiss.
So, my fine, five readers, there you have it. That is where my mind went this Humpday. Kind of appropriate when you think about it.
But you gainfully employed citizens need to take that cold shower, swallow down the last of the creamy coffee and head out to work.
Strap on your skates and attack the hill, making sure that you wave from its peak at Friday waiting off in the distance. If you squint hard you will see the weekend.
And no matter what else we get up to, including kissing, let us make today a great one.
