Humanity!

Some people can get right up your nose.

I don’t, as a rule, go around sniffing people. That’s a rather impertinent invasion of personal space. But sometimes, you get a whiff of their perfume as someone passes by. Depending on the subtlety of the product, or their application of it, that whiff might be alluring or it might just make your eyes water. We are so sanitised nowadays that it is rare that anybody actually smells of anything other than artificial fragrances.

But this week I smelled two humans ‘au naturelle’ and both have filled my thoughts and prayers.

Firstly, in the public library, I was assailed by a powerful combination of rancid cheese, onions, wee and old gravy. It was the sort of odour that wilts cartoon flowers. But this wasn’t funny; it was a woman in what I can only imagine was some sort of emotional, physical or financial hell that meant personal hygiene was the last thing on her mind. She was gone almost as quickly as she came but her pong lingered so insistently that I felt compelled to make a donation to Crisis UK. I’ve never been destitute, but I could have been. I might yet, who knows what the future holds. That rank odour reminded me that I have a lot to be thankful for.

Which brings me to the second human that got, not so much up my nose as under my skin, which is something else to be thankful for.

Again, I don’t advocate going around sniffing people, especially young ones.

And anyway, if they’re anything like my two-and-a-half-year-old grandson, there’s no time for sniffing. I was far too busy chasing, being chased, being a horse, an elephant, a camel, reading books, drinking ‘a dop of tea’, being climbed over, sat on, reading more books, being another horse…

It was only when I got home and crawled into bed that I got a lovely tickle in the nose from his fragrance still on my skin. It was like, oh, how to describe?

Warm, and all butter and bubbles.

It was almost imperceptible but it conjured such happy memories, and I was proper overcome with love for that little boy, who had climbed up on my knee and given me so many cuddles.

Now, I know that mothers and babies have a specific scent thing going on that bonds them so strongly. But I’ve a feeling all small children have a smell that triggers care and love in adults. I think other mammals do, so why not us? The power of the Pheromone. I mean, I remember adoring the smell of my own children when they were tiny, but also nieces and nephews and the children of friends that I babysat… Of course, if we’re all related there may be a familial fragrance that we all share. But that wouldn’t account for the other little people I cared for. Maybe friendship puts us all in the same tribe, which is after all an extended family. Maybe all small children emit a pheromone that demands to be looked after and loved. You know cats do that, don’t you? Someone told me it’s really a pheromone to lull their prey into a false sense of trust but it makes humans want to care for them. Pheromones. Fascinating. And, when a darling child decides that you’re worth cuddling, truly wonderful.

But what about the woman in the library? Hers was not a smell that invited a cuddle, but maybe it was a cry for care. Who am I to say what she did or didn’t need? I know nothing about her but that smell lingering in the air was sending a message.

The Smell of the Week: HUMANITY!