The kissing chronicles

Fundamental things no longer apply

Imagine you’re living in a society where it’s dangerous to kiss people on the mouth in a moment of euphoria but quite alright to send cluster bombs that tear people to shreds to a place called Ukraine.

Where if you are a man you’re constantly under scrutiny for ‘macho’ behaviours as defined by a shrill chorus of man-hating people whom I will not deign to call ‘women’.

Where there is a real chance that if you let a warm emotion run away with you, you’ll lose your job, your reputation and possibly, your mind. Where it’s not okay to be a human any longer.

Where you must abide by algorithms and be robotic in your everyday interactions. Where left brain power mad people rule. Where form is everything and content always suspect.

You and I live in a society just like that.

Frankly, I wasn’t going to add my voice to this idiotic yet frightening French of wrongthink. But I’m only human. And even sober and sane people are getting it wrong, as the eminent and well paid columnist, Melanie McDonagh does:

https://thespectator.com/life/luis-rubiales-weirdness-kiss-kissing/?utm_source=Spectator

Think again, Melanie. And maybe allow yourself to feel something? And ask if kissing is still about a kind of love or whether that is now verboten, much like humour is.

On the other hand, there is Heather MacDonald who writes in Quillette that the entire thing was and is ludicrous. I guess we all have to decide how we really feel about expressing human emotions like joy without fear.

https://quillette.com/2023/09/11/a-kiss-is-just-a-kiss/

And that’s all I am going to say on kissing, for now. An old melody keeps roiling round in my mind and so I will share it with you. We no longer write songs like As Time Goes By because way too much time has gone by. But love itself has not gone by.