“Wonderland” by Collapsis flows out of the snow-dusted hi-fi… “she said, ‘even in this cold December sky, know you are the center of my life’…”
My newly appointed guru of snowboarding Richard put up photos he took when he went to hit the snow in Colorado. Absolutely beautiful scenery. A lot of people would call me crazy, but I would choose the most beautiful snowy landscape over the most beautiful tropical beach. Really, I would. Before you write me off as being cold-blooded, let me explain (or not explain): it’s all down to the strange fascination I have with snow; a fascination I am unable to explain. I sometimes look out of the window when I notice it’s raining, but when it snows I always try to watch. One of life’s simple pleasures for me is to be walking outside and for it to suddenly start snowing. The snow has an effect of somehow slowing everything down. Time comes to a gradual halt in the space of that moment. Though it stops for a very short while, sometimes fitting perfectly in the blink of an eye, it’s just long enough for me to stand there and watch the snowflakes cascade down onto me, guided by the rhythm of their own dance. It’s long enough to feel them float down and sink softly, disappearing into my skin. Melting into me, uninterrupted by the constants of time. The air is cold but I feel a warmth from inside of me emanating, heating the air around me. Standing in snowfall presented to me one of the first times I remember being able to feel the warmth of my own body. It was Iike I had left my own body and discovered how cold the world was without me.
My fascination extends into film as well. Poppoya and Love Letter are amongst my favourite films of all time and both are filmed on Japan’s Hokkaido island. The latter inspired me so much that it led me to write a review for it. The honour for most touching and beautiful scene in the snow belongs to Red Shadow. I am not going to explain what happens in the scene due to spoiler content, but also because I do not need to write it down to remember it. I don’t think I will ever forget it. As the scene unfolded before me I sat motionless and this stillness continued inside of me well after the scene had ended.
One day I am just going to do it. Just pack my things and head for the snowy slopes so that I may ski and snowboard for the first time in my life. Ambitions are dreams in disguise and the only thing that separates my thinking about it from my actually doing it is something as simple as a plane ticket to France, Austria or Finland. A ticket to a destination unknown for now. It’s a small price to pay for fulfilling something I want to experience. I’m going to just do it one day, even if it’s because there’s no reason at all why I shouldn’t.
At work I spoke briefly with Q about the forthcoming work Christmas party. James had said he was going to be wearing plenty of mistletoe, which was when I suggested he wear a hat weaved from the festive evergreen. He said he wants to go out collecting kisses this year. Kissing is a topic that gets stranger for me the more I learn about its history and science. I could say this to all the revellers and clubbers in the world and they’d tell me to lighten up; that it’s just a bit of fun.
But why do people kiss if they don’t mean it? There are many theories, many of which are debatable (e.g. an electric current is produced upon the lips touching, which leads to heightened euphoria — this has to be rubbish because euphoria is induced by hormonal release) but the most valid theory I have read in scientific publications is the immune system/evolutionary theory. In practise, saliva can be used to monitor a patient’s level of stress by measuring changes in the breakdown products of noradrenaline (a neurotransmitter). Higher amounts of its breakdown products correlate to higher amounts of trauma. Back in the times of early man (and woman), kissing may have been just a simple procedure by which the health of a potential partner could be assessed. How the nervous system is able to determine a good partner via this method and provide sensory feedback to the individual is a mystery to me. This is consistent with another immunological method by which good potential partners could be determined, where scent is the factor. This only works for the female of the species though: where a woman can sense compatibility (via genetic makeup) of a potential partner by finding pleasantness in the scent of his sweat.
It’s always the guys that will tell me kissing is all a bit of fun. Kissing strangers? Fun? This is another exhibit of why I just don’t understand guys sometimes. Granted, there are girls who are the female counterparts of said fun-loving males, but I find the majority of girls and women are easier to understand because they have a set order in the way they do and process things. Boys and men are generally more erratic and unpredictable so much so that at times it feels as though I could have an easier time predicting where Kurt Vonnegut is going when he starts trailing off in his novels. I am a male, if my Y chromosome has anything to do with it, but I am still far from understanding what I am or why I am.
At the end of the day, kissing is a behaviour which we have learned and accepted as an important part of human culture. There are different types of kisses and they are all viewed with a varied amount of acceptance in everyday usage in different cultures and societies. I will continue to kiss my parents and my friends in the same way, on their cheeks, but I just do not buy into the practise of kissing someone on the lips unless they meant something to me. With the exception of acting jobs, I don’t think I could ever inflict my kisses upon someone if I couldn’t see myself ever falling for them.
Quote of the day: “A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous” - Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982).
