Musings on Life and Love

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“To be in love is merely to be in a state of perceptual anesthesia.” – H.L. Mencken

From an early age, we are bombarded with messages of romance and fairytale endings. Disney has this down to a science. From Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty to Snow White and Ariel, our heads are filled with the idea that someday our prince will come, there will be a “foot-popping” kiss, and we’ll live in happily-ever-after bliss. After many frogs kissed, we may start to wonder, “where is my prince?”

This snipe-hunt that begins at a young age is fueled by our innate need to procreate and pass on our genetic profile. We may find them at Match.com, Chemistry.com, our workplace, through friends, a book store, or at the bottom of a few empty wine glasses. But how do we know that they are The One? Romance can play us for fools, believing we have found the right person when, really, we are only seeing them through drug-laden glasses.

Birth control pills can mask a woman’s ability to detect certain genetic profiles, causing her to often choose mates unwisely. Endorphins and adrenaline can also lead to false-positive results. Traces of testosterone (a chemical Mickey, of sorts, that increases arousal) are found in a man’s saliva, and the longer the kiss, the more is passed on to the woman, increasing her arousal state and willingness to possibly go further. (Now those big, sloppy, dog-like kisses start to make sense!) Read more…