Nosiness

A nose is the thing that goes before. There is a reason for its placement. Its work is vital in the animal world, and since we are part of that, being warm blooded creatures, our noses are an important part of our bodies. Noses smell to tantalize us, warn us, allow oxygen in and out and sometimes just sit there looking pretty. But not all noses, no matter how hard they work, are deemed "pretty". Most people I know, especially women, don't like their noses at all. They complain that they are too long, too hooked, too thick, too short, too big and so on, endlessly. They want nose jobs. I understand. I come from a family-nose family, and when I was a tweeny, the most sensitive stage in a young life, my grandfather took my chin in his hand and turned my head sideways. He commented.  "Yes, you have the family nose." He considered it my rite of passage. Like every other child in the family, I did not want "the family nose", but there it was and I had to live with it. Only now have I come to accept my nose. While it is far from perfect, it deserves a certain amount of praise. It hasn't gained weight nor is it wrinkled. So far. And I have, over the years, become quite attached to it even though it has been attached to me all that time. It and I have a very good on-going close relationship. In spite of the no-perfume crowd, I continue to enjoy sniffing good perfumes, flowers and trees, the sea air and the ozone after a thunder storm. My nose is a pleasure-giving organ that tells me what is going to taste good and what I want to be close to. It also tells me what to stay away from. It's a kind of  organic early warning device. When I become annoyed with my family-nose, I have to think about what I would do if I didn't have it. I doubt that I could continue to love the aroma of baking bread, roasting turkeys, frying bacon, the hair on a baby's head and a field full of lavender.  All those joys would disappear if my nose were missing. Noses fit faces and when someone opts to have theirs reconstructed at great expense, it doesn't quite fit. You can usually scope out a nose job. Certain of us have  heritages that award us with rather prominent features and when we try to recreate what we came with, it shows. Hollywood noses known as pugs used to be considered "cute" and most of the perky lady actors made adjustments to partake of it. These days, those employed in the film, or now, the HD business, leave their noses alone. I can think of at least five noses on the screen, that would have been shunned once on the stage, but which have now become a trademark of the person doing the lines. Noses are in to stay. Up with noses!