There are two moments when I am most aware of my lips.
The first is when I am kissing someone. There is a moment when my lips are millimeters away from another set of lips. That split second before they touch. I find myself blissfully aware of where my lips are on my body and in space. Then there is contact. That first kiss. It doesn’t have to be the first kiss but simply the first kiss after not kissing for some time. The lips touch and I am alive in my awareness of where my lips are. I never want to take them away from that moment. That person. Then I feel another tongue slide across my lips and teeth that affectionately tug and pull and I am certain that there is no better part of my body then those two tender, soft, wet lips.
The second time that I’m most aware of my lips is when I have a cold sore. Yeah, not the most pleasant image. It never fails. Whenever I am on antibiotics (thankfully I’m not on very much) I will get a cold sore. This awareness is not the sort of pleasure filled experience that I get when I’m in the midst of a kiss. Instead I want to tear my lips off my body. I hate them. I feel as all that people can see of me are my painful face appendages. I hide myself away until they are gone and the entire time I curse my lips. All the natural remedies on the planet, all prescription medications, all the lip balms and salves seem to not bring me any comfort.
What an interesting little post, B. I am always quite aware of my mouth when I trim my moustache (which I do frequently, being the metrosexual we all know I am) but other than that, I never think about it. I’m oddly not aware of it when kissing … I think I go into some other dimension where the physical mechanics of the experience don’t make an impression on me, which is a bit strange.
Neat post. I’m sorry about the cold sores. I hate those too. I don’t get them too often but you’re right, you want to hide away til they’re gone but inevitably, when you have a cold sore there is also something that REQUIRES you to appear in public. Such is life.
I agree with David and Corina. Neat and interesting post.
I seem to be immune to the virus that causes cold sores. Although I have had repeated exposure to the chicken pox (same virus), I never managed to catch them. I should probably submit myself to science or something so they can make a vaccine from my blood.
Robin — It’s not the same virus, actually. Chicken pox is caused by herpes zoster. Cold sores are caused by herpes simplex type I.
Herpes zoster is the same virus that causes shingles, however.
Srry, mistype — chicken pox is varicella zoster; the lingering virus afterward is herpes zoster. But at any rate, chicken pox doesn’t ever cause cold sores, which was my original pettifogging point.