The warm deserted beach was flat, without footprints. We relaxed, joking about the gallery's famous 1898 Rodin sculpture, "The Kiss" as we ate traditional fish and chips.
The erotic sculpture shows passion of Paolo and Francesca, lovers entwined for eternity in Dante's Inferno. Rodin rendered "inner feelings through muscular movement with all that vibrates on the surface - soul, love, passion, life."
The Kiss is sensuous. Rainer Maria Rilke wrote, "One has the impression of seeing the delight of this kiss all over these bodies; it is like a sun which rises and its light is everywhere."
The sensual nudity of The Kiss caused the poet Paul Claudel, to write: the man is sitting to make the most of his opportunity. He uses both his hands, and she does her best, as the Americans say, to “deliver the goods.”
The Kiss is currently on loan (through September 2) to the Turner Contemporary in Margate, Kent. Come and see - it's worth it... You might even learn a new pose!
Fish and chips finished, Angela changed the subject. "Why is it, whenever Bev gives me Reiki, I feel a tight band around my forehead?"
"It's common to feel that," I replied, "if you receive healing, and you're not very psychic. Are you not very psychic?"
"No. I'm not."
"Exactly. It's like a bandage of protection around your third eye. It's an in-built protection mechanism, to prevent some people seeing things they're not ready to see. If you see too much too soon, you might be frightened or even become schizophrenic. The band gets looser the more psychic you become."
"Makes sense to how I felt," Angela said.
"When I give myself or others Reiki," Beverley interrupted, "why do I get a pain in the right side of my chest?"
"Reiki uses electro-magnetism," I answered. "Perhaps Reiki's "plus magnetic energy" is attracted to a "minus magnetic energy" of a physical problem. It could be simple, like an unhealed muscle you pulled as a child. If doctors can't find anything wrong with your chest, continue with Reiki, and heal yourself."
"Makes sense to how I feel," Beverley smiled, as she kissed me goodbye. But not passionately or sensually, like The Erotic Kiss of Rodin.