Falling apart from stress and why kissing is important for kids
This fall my brain has been squirting out stress hormones at an alarming rate. My muscles are tired from trying to cope with it all. My arms shake, I burst into tears often and my blood pressure hits the floor. Noise is really difficult at the moment, especially cloppity ladies heels. Trying to keep a clear head through it is a great challenge. I can reduce it somewhat if I lift weights so that my muscles can burn it faster, but I have to be careful not to exercise too much, because then they get over-tired and it gets worse. I can only speculate, but I think the massive stress is due to grief and having 8-hour days. Grief needs space and time and I don’t have that, so my body is doing the slow version, struggling to do what has to be done, alongside what needs to be done.
On a completely other note, one pet peeve I have is the lack of cultural-neutral scientists. The latest idiocy I read about was research in kissing. According to the research the point of kissing is that men and women boost their immune systems by doing it. Adult kissing is a modern behaviour. Men and women líving as couples is a modern idea.
Kissing, like so many social behaviours, originates in the realm of child-care. The exchange that starts in the womb and carries on through breastfeeding, continues in kissing. It is not just about the immune system, it is about getting food and triggering protective behaviour in the adult. Adult primates kiss each other after aggression, behaviour often called appeasment - a fancy word for role-playing I’m-a-harmless-baby, which hopefully triggers a I-will-protect-you response.
On my father’s side of the family, who lived more or less the same way since Viking times until two generations ago, kissing was something that only happened in private and adults kissed very seldom. Small children got tita or tuta - words for kissing and rubbing noses. Rubbing noses is something that has really fallen out of fashion. It is a shame, because it is really nice.

Jane Goodall kissing a primate. Please "love" me! Great body language.

































Places to see on RV50 along Vättern.
