Sensuous Sensations

 

cadmium red - noun - a bright shade of red from the pigment of the element cadmium; vermillion 

We humans perceive and document life via our five senses: eyesight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. If we were to lose one of our senses, our immediate perceptions would be somewhat thwarted, and consequently, our memories would not be able to store the past vividly. Very few can recall the past that precisely, though, and most tend to be relegated to sight: what they can recount visually. For example, cadmium red tends to remind me of a specific Valentine's Day involving a vermillion lollipop that my first boyfriend gave me, which I saved for thirty years just to document the occasion palpably. Okay, I'll admit to being overly sentimental. After all those years, the pop had melted in its cellophane wrap, forcing me to make the heartbreaking decision to toss it. Nevertheless, the other four senses–hearing, taste, touch, and smell–can also be depended on to pick up on familiar sensations and project us back, permitting us to relive momentous moments in our lives. 

Yesterday I had the good fortunate to be invited to a classy, ladies-who-lunch type of luncheon, celebrating my best, most sophisticated friend's sixty-second birthday at her sister's country estate reminiscent of Daisy Buchanan's mansion in The Great Gatsby. (In high school, my friend was voted "Most Sophisticated" and has never lived down the classification.) Her sister, a former v.p. of NASDAQ, regaled us with witty anecdotes of her chance meetings with various celebrities who had started their careers quite young. Somehow the conversation segued into a discussion of which senses packed the biggest punch re: sense memory. For whatever reason, the sense of smell ranked up there with vision among the Millennials present. Apparently, various aromas can take them back to highly detailed recollections. Personally, I think I have aged out of that ability as my olfactory sense isn't up to par. It is rare that I can take a whiff of something that propels me back in time anymore. 

With the aforementioned being said, I am tremendously thankful that we all have been endowed with sensuous sensations. They allow us to "suck out all the marrow of life" as Thoreau would say and experience minor miracles in the present that eventually stimulate nostalgia going forward. 

Every minute brings with it a minor miracle if we allow our senses to absorb the greatest of the present.

Enjoy the day! 

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