There are two possibilities: Either the kiss is a human universal, one of the constellation of innate traits, including language and laughter, that unites us as a species, or it is an invention, like fire or wearing clothes, an idea so good that it was bound to metastasize across the globe.
Interpretation
The quote explores whether kissing is a natural human instinct or a learned behavior that has become widespread.
Joshua Foer's quote raises the intriguing question of the origin of the kiss, suggesting it could either be an innate behavior that is common to all humans, similar to language and laughter, or a cultural invention, akin to fire and clothing. This duality highlights how certain actions may either be biologically driven or socially constructed, prompting deeper reflection on human connection and communication.
In practice
During a wedding speech, one might refer to the quote to highlight the significance of the kiss in the ceremony.
We're all just a bundle of habits shaped by our memories. And to the extent that we control our lives, we do so by gradually altering those habits, which is to say the networks of our memory. No lasting joke, or invention, or insight, or work of art was ever produced by an external memory. Not yet, at least.
Sequencing - the careful striptease by which you reveal information to the reader - matters in an article, but it is absolutely essential to a book.
Monotony collapses time; novelty unfolds it. You can exercise daily and eat healthily and live a long life, while experiencing a short one. If you spend your life sitting in a cubicle and passing papers, one day is bound to blend unmemorably into the next - and disappear.
I met with amnesiacs and savants, educators and scientists, to try to understand what memory is, why it works, why it sometimes doesn't, and what its potential might be.
If you were a medieval scholar reading a book, you knew that there was a reasonable likelihood you'd never see that particular text again, and so a high premium was placed on remembering what you read. You couldn't just pull a book off the shelf to consult it for a quote or an idea.
To the extent that experience is the sum of our memories and wisdom the sum of experience, having a better memory would mean knowing not only more about the world, but also more about myself.
He couldn't even tell whether he was angry or contrite, whether it was forgiveness he wanted or the power to forgive.
Stand not too near the rich man lest he destroy thee - and not too far away lest he forget thee.
No, Miss Wright didn't want to meet her kid. To her, that relationship was just as important, just as ideal and impossible as it would be to the child. She'd expect that young man to be perfect, smart, and talented, everything to compensate for all the mistakes that she'd made. The whole wasted, unhappy mess of her life.
I realized I had been keeping people around even when deep down I knew they were bad for me. I had overridden myself.
Being human, we are imperfect. That's why we need each other. To catch each other when we falter. To encourage each other when we lose heart. Some may lead; others may follow; but none of us can go it alone.
Don't marry a man to reform him - that's what reform schools are for.
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