I’m not sure how far you would go in rendering the kiss of life to someone, but I expect most men would prefer a beautiful film star to a smelly sick old tramp! A woman, who had just attended a medical class on giving the kiss of life to someone, came out of the building and saw a man lying in the gutter. She immediately went in to action, turned him over, bent down and gave him the mouth-to-mouth. He struggled free and said, “Do you mind madam, I was cleaning out the drains!”
The Daily Telegraph surveyed several people, asking them if they would give the kiss of life to someone; their replies were interesting. “Dangerous” Dave Pearce, Breakfast Show DJ, Kiss FM: “Only if they had flossed their teeth, weren’t wearing Brut and didn’t support Millwall. And I’d avoid beards.”
Jacques Cuvellier, artist; “All kisses are the kiss of life, and we French love kissing. I would imagine that we would find it easier to give the kiss of life to a stranger than the British – who seem to hate kissing under any circumstances.”
John Gannon, fireman; “I saved a dog from a fire by giving it mouth-to-mouth. I’m sure he had fleas because I was scratching for a week after. We were called to a fire on a barge on the canal, and we searched the place twice because we had a report that someone was in there. We didn’t find anybody, but we found this dog. We tried to resuscitate it using an air cylinder, but it ran out so I carried on, with my mouth.”
Claire Rider, singer, barber shop choir: “Being a bass with excellent breathing control I might blow the person up. Or I might end up kissing them by mistake, especially if it was someone I knew. Good grief.” Lastly, Ian Bleasdale, aka Josh Griffiths in Casualty: “I’d do it as long the person wasn’t a member of the Tory party!” The replies were numerous; some were serious but most were humorous. The essential feature of this act is to restore vitality and vigour, to bring a person back from the brink of death, thus making them live again, where death was imminent.
I expect kissing is a rarity to a single person, unless they are courting or promiscuous, but to the married person, perhaps every day? This most often quoted act in religious terms was when the father was looking for his prodigal son: “But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him”. (Luke 15:20). The lad would smell of pigs – it takes about two days to get that kind of smell off your hands, yet the father ignored the stench and embraced his son, smell and all. When you realise his son (“fain would fill his stomach with the beans the pigs would eat,”) had eaten slop and his breath would be foul, yet love broke through and conquered all. It was, in effect, a kiss of life.
Judas gave Jesus the kiss of death, and the woman, whom Jesus delivered and pardoned, worshipped, wiped and wetted his feet – kissing them through her tears of gratitude. The bride in the Song of Solomon pleads for the beloved’s kisses – they are life to her and the advice of the psalmist is “Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way . . . Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.” (Ps 2:11-12).
I did not kiss my wife properly for years because she took two immune suppressant drugs and I may have unwittingly imparted an infection that could be critical, but we held hands and a squeeze equals a little kiss. However, we can kiss God in worship and be kissed back with no fear of infection, just the reverse – the impartation of life.
