Today, I’m thankful for the innocent kiss.
When an announcement was made that Princess Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of King George VI, was engaged to marry her third cousin, the British Empire was thrust into a frenzy. The presumptive heir to the English throne met Philip Mountbatten, the prince of Denmark and Greece, many years earlier at a wedding of one of Philip’s cousins, when the couple was still prepubescent youth. However, over the next decade, a romantic relationship would flourish to the point that Philip would ask for Elizabeth’s hand in marriage from the English monarch in 1946. However, as Elizabeth was rather young, being only 20 years of age at the time, King George VI requested that the engagement remain secret until after Elizabeth’s 21st birthday in April 1947. When the engagement was formally announced, plans were already well in the works for a fairy-tale wedding at Westminster Abbey in London. On this day (Nov 20) in 1947, Elizabeth and Philip would exchange their vows and embark on a life together as the oldest living monarchial couple in British history. Yet, something happened at that marriage ceremony that is rarely told in the history books or Wikipedia pages. When the nervous couple finally was pronounced as united under God in front of hundreds of distinguished guests and millions of passionate supporters waiting outside of that renowned cathedral, they did not kiss.
Wait, what?
You see, British tradition formally frowns on public displays of affection (PDA). The general belief is that the royal couple should maintain a higher presence, filled with stern dignity and stoicism, and devoid of any hint of emotion. So, one can only imagine the storm that was created 6 years later, after the untimely death of King George VI, when Philip decided to break with tradition during Elizabeth’s formal elevation to Queen. In the first televised coronation in British history, which was watched by millions around the world, Elizabeth would return to Westminster Abbey and be formally pronounced as Queen Elizabeth II. This time, Philip could not help himself. After his ceremonial pledge was complete, he rose from his knee and kissed the young 25-year old Queen on the cheek, immediately igniting a fury in Elizabeth’s mother, the Queen Mum, and the entire Windsor family. In fact, over the 73 years of their marriage, the number of times the couple has issued a warm, public embrace is less than 40.
Why does the world make such a fuss of a public show of affection, such as an innocent peck on the cheek?
Granted, in these dastardly times of societal quarantine, I can fully appreciate that a public kiss is probably not consistent with the Center for Disease Control’s guidelines for social distancing. However, even in times of serenity, before the spread of SARS-CoV-2 had reached pandemic proportions, the world found itself often offended by such displays. Don’t folks realize that certain Mediterranean cultures, like the Greek one that Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and I were raised in, actually revel in public kissing? In fact, one kiss is often insufficient. We prefer to do the double kiss, with at least one smooch on each cheek.
The funny thing is that folks in the British Isles will deflect PDA, yet they will go to extraordinary measures with their lips to secure a social quality we all adore. If you were to travel due west from London across St. George’s Channel and into Ireland, you would come upon the bustling, riverside city of Cork. Just 8 kilometers outside of Ireland’s second largest city stands a stone castle, originally built in 1446, in the small town of Blarney. After climbing the intimidating 100 steps up a narrow, circular staircase, one would come upon a block of limestone precariously built into one of the castle’s parapets. The castle’s builder, Cormac Laidir MacCarthy, inserted the stone into one of the battlements because the rock has brought him such oratory prowess. Rumor has it that Cormac kissed the sacred stone prior to making his verbal argument in a 15th Century lawsuit, and his subsequent ability to articulate his case with such eloquence and clarity eventually secured his legal victory. So, today, thousands flock to Blarney Castle where they perform this fascinating ritual of kissing the Blarney Stone to obtain the purported ‘gift of gab.’. Yet, the lengths they go to secure this kiss are astonishing. In an effort to touch the stone with one’s lips, a willing volunteer must lean over backwards on the parapet’s edge and suspend themselves in the air far enough – mind you, 100 feet above the ground – until their puckered lips touch the cold stone. In the past, such a dangerous act routinely led to the death of many seeking the power of the stone. Fortunately, the parapet is now fitted with protective crossbars and iron guardrails, and a trained professional is there at all times to assist in this communal act.
So, let me get this straight. We refuse to kiss another human in public, but we will go to dangerous lengths to kiss a cold slab of stone to garner the gift of gab?
Perhaps there’s an easier way for a Brit to garner luck. Indeed, for many years on the television game show, The Family Feud, the British host, Richard Dawson, would kiss every female participant as a gentle measure to afford her luck. Known as the ‘Kissing Bandit’, Dawson would be repeatedly berated by the game show’s producers for his affectionate smooch, but none of the female participants really ever seemed to mind. All the contestants were looking for any luck they could amass to ensure they accurately selected one of the answers in the survey. Dawson would have celebrated his 88th birthday on this day, had he not passed away from esophageal cancer in 2012.
So, on this day we celebrate the two British extremes of PDA (Queen Elizabeth II and Richard Dawson), might you offer a kiss to someone you truly love, even if you choose to do so in private (and even if you choose to do so while wearing a mask). I would gather that a stolen kiss probably tops the list of 100 people surveyed as the most desired treats in the world.
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