XO Kissy Huggy XO

In the movie, "Prick Up Your Ears", Gary Oldman poses this line to a potential lover:

"Do you kiss?"

And he does...and they do.

There was a lot of kissing this past weekend. Oh sure, with the usual suspects, Sergei and Boy-Child and Girl-Child. But as Sergei mentioned last Friday, we went to my folks house this weekend for a reunion, my siblings and their spouses/sig others and all the kids and a favorite uncle dropped by.

And there was a lot of kissing. And hugging. And playful bumping of shoulders and butt-nudges and ribbing about the size of noses and thighs.

I'm not sure if my family is weird in that respect, I have very little to compare it to. With Sergei's various family elements, there is a lot of hugging, and kisses from moms. In my family, guys and girls kiss, sort of a sideways kiss, so I got a peck from my brother, my uncle, my mom, sisters, sister-in-law, and a boyfriend (not mine). My dad gives me a cheek-kiss. My niece and nephew give me a cheek-rubbing kiss.

We all get along, which I guess in itself is fairly abnormal...not saying we don't disagree, but we're not one of those families that argues. We may gossip a bit (and Sergei is chortling right now about that, esp. given the topics of conversation revolving around my black-sheep youngest sister...more on that at a later date), but we don't argue. There's no need.

Several decades ago, some family members were killed in an unexpected and terrible way...by a tornado. Not so much 'Wizard of Oz' as 'Discovery Channel: Killer Tornados'. That marked a sort of change in the entire extended family dynamic. I think everyone realized that we can just go...snap!...at any time. So each time we meet, we kiss and hug just in case.

When Sergei and I did local theatre, there was a similar dynamic, but not so much kissing as playful hugging and rubbing of backs and flirting and shoulder leaning. Well, in the case of Sergei and me, we DID kiss and hug (onstage and backstage) and ended up being the happy married couple. We don't have time for theatre now, with two jobs and two kids and sports and meetings and bills. I go through periods of missing it. The acting part, sure, I miss working that craft. But I think more, I miss the comraderie. I miss going through all the hell that is the rehearsal process and coming out the other side with a good product and good friends, being able to touch someone on the arm and have it mean, "Hey, good job out there!"

With our friends and family, we're not afraid to touch. And we like it when they touch back.

Say "Amen" somebody....