With so many types of kisses to choose from, it's no wonder that men and women hardly ever get a chance to take their clothes off. But different cultures apparently enjoy different types of kisses. Take the Eskimo for example. A kiss that involves 2 people approaching each other and rubbing their noses together leaves me a bit cold. But you know, maybe if you live in a sub-30 degree environment your mouth isn't up to any heavy spit-swapping.
Call me old fashioned, but everything I ever wanted in a kiss can be found in the French Kiss. God Bless the French. Not to take anything away from the Eskimo's, but one of life's little pleasures is sticking my tongue in my wife's mouth. We've been know to rub noses occasionally in between breathes of air. But the whole gently-open-your-mouth-and-insert-tongue bit has always been a kiss that paid big dividends for us.
Leave it to my daughter to give me the full run down on the world of kissing. She came home one afternoon from school, all excited about something called the "butterfly kiss". It's a kiss that does not involve a kiss. Rather the boy and girl stand cheek to cheek and... blink their eye lashes against one another. Hello out there! Anybody home? I think maybe an Eskimo invented that one. Or maybe it's just a natural response to our continuing fear of AIDS, chicken flu and who knows how many other types of still-to-be-discovered viruses.
My daughter also informed that the "Hand Kiss" is making a come back. Historically, the hand kiss, with its required bow of subordination, showed its difference to a lady. If a male was too superior to lower himself, he simply raised the woman's hand to his mouth. I was convinced that the hand kiss had now fallen out of fashion. In fact, I don't think I've done it since I was engaged to my wife (and maybe even then I think I did it to my soon-to-be-mother in law). Anyway, it makes an unexpected romantic impression. To perform it correctly, lower your eyes and cup shoulders over the lady's fingers, prolonging the moment when your lips rest on her hand. You will know the kiss has made its mark if the receiver avoids washing for several days to make sure the warm sensation stays sealed where your lips have placed it.
It just dawned on me that my daughter knows an awful lot about kissing for an 11 year old. Aren't 11 year old girls still playing with dolls? My wife reminded me of a game we played on a cruise ship one year that was referred to as "Suck and Blow." To begin, men and women gather in a circle and try passing a playing card from mouth to mouth by first inhaling to receive a playing card and then exhaling to pass the card to the person. If the pass is successful, you will be left feeling pleasantly light headed. If the pass is unsuccessful, the card will slip, leaving your lips pressed to those of your unsuspecting neighbour. I'd completely forgotten about this one. And I now recall why: the activities director on the ship split the men and women into separate groups, ensuring that no one wanted to make a mistake and see their card drop.
The kissing game of intimacy, love and sex would certainly be a lot less stimulating if it weren't for the kiss. Kissing the lips (or anywhere else for that matter) has not only sustained my marriage over the years, but is also just a heck of a lot of fun.