Often I stop to remind myself that at any moment there are billions of things going on with people all over the planet. I think it's important to step back and get some perspective. It helps us feel more connected with others, to remind us that we're not in this alone, and to remove our attention from narrow, delimiting. often useless or meaningless distractions and, especially to draw our minds away from the conflict attention grabbers that media uses to get our money. Today I'd like to focus on kissing. I wonder how many kisses are happening right now--or have happened just in the time it took me finish this sentence. AS b iological anthropologist, Helen Fisher says, "One of the benefits of kissing is that it allows for loads of data to be exchanged, which then makes it possible for people to unconsciously assess their potential and permanent partners." If you think about it, kissing is a peculiar phenomenon covering everything from reciprocal kisses, like b