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Showing posts from June, 2014

KISS to Live Long

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“May I kiss you then? On this miserable paper? I might as well open the window and kiss the night air.”  ―  Franz Kafka Relief showing Queen Nefertiti, 18th Dynasty, Ancient Egypt, c1352-1336 BC. A detail of a relief showing Nefertiti kissing her daughter, perhaps Merytaten, under the rays of the Aten. Kissing is described in the surviving  Ancient Egyptian  love poetry from the  New Kingdom , found on papyri excavated at  Deir el-Medina . T he earliest reference to kissing in the   Old Testament   is in   Genesis   27:26, when   Jacob   deceives his father to obtain his blessing:  And his father   Isaac   said unto him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son.  A little later, we have the first man-woman kiss in the   Bible   in Genesis 31:11, when Jacob flees from   Esau   and comes to the house of his uncle   Laban :  And Jacob kissed   Rachel , and lifted up his voice, and wept.                                                                            Paintin