Saturday, January 12, 2008

Say what?

If you have ever looked only at someones mouth while they spoke, and watched their teeth, lips, and tongue work together to form words, you had to ask "How is that even possible?" If you remove any piece from the mechanism, speech becomes incoherent. Add to this the need for vocal cords with air moving past them, and the mystery grows. At this point, you have to consider that you also need the ability to generate the thoughts and form the sentences which the noises create. So many parts of such a basic human function.

One small piece of being human, a non-essential piece really, is so complicated that the great minds of the world can only concede that it really doesn't seem possible.

If you add a beard and mustache around the mouth it becomes even more bizarre; I can't explain this phenomenon.

It's almost as if the teeth have a mind of their own and are running the whole show. Usually the teeth are slightly off center in the mouth. This can become a distraction as thoughts turn to Tom Cruise, who clearly has some teeth/mouth centering issues. None of this matters though, when you consider his artistically superior roles in movies like...okay, there's only one: "Vanilla Sky."
Usually his movies focus on that key shot of his smile for their success, movies like:
Top Gun
A few good men
Risky Business
Rumble fish (was he in that?)
Jerry Maguire (You had me at $8.75 for the ticket)
Pee Wee's Big Adventure (or was that Paul Reuben)

The smile must be given it's due, it has an important place in the history of Hollywood. However, the point was that it is only a distraction from the miracle of speech, and that the teeth seem to be in charge. I think this is only an illusion because they are hard and smooth. I believe the lips to be the mastermind behind the mystery.

As another side note, you may notice that as we age the lips seem less pliable. The whole upper lip starts moving as one piece instead of like a sign wave. Remember the Peanuts characters and the squiggly line their mouths could form; they were young.

Next time someone talks to you, do as I have suggested and see if you don't agree that it doesn't seem possible. It's worth acknowledging.

Good bye

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