For the better part of today, my brain has been working in the background, mulling over Stream of Consciousness Saturday’s prompt “bodily function.” To be honest, I guess I must be sort of prudish, because all I could think of was bodily functions that are usually not discussed in polite company. (Thank you, Emily Post. You probably don’t remember her. She was the original etiquette queen. Waaaay before Miss Manners came along. But I digress.) Despite my prudishness, my biggest laugh today was reading Fandango’s take on the subject on his This, That, & the Other blog. He chose farts. You’re laughing now, too, I bet. Go read it; you’ll laugh even harder.
Anyhooo, part of my mulling was about autonomous bodily functions, those you really have no control over. (That does NOT include farting, because, as everyone knows, you can hold that in, for quite a while with practice. Again, digressing.) I mean something like blinking. Since this is SoC, I think it’d be cheating to leave now and do a little research, but I think the main reason for blinking is to keep your eyeballs hydrated. Every blink spreads a layer of useful tears.
Did you ever have a blinking contest when you were a kid? Or when an adult with a kid? Or when a drunk adult? Like farts, you can control blinking for quite a while (not as long as farts). Sooner or later, however, you lose control and blink. In my experience it’s sooner rather than later. I think it’s partly because my eyes need a LOT of hydrating but also because once I start thinking I can’t do something, if it’s a rule or a law, I can’t stop thinking about doing it. Like telling someone not to think about elephants. (Try THAT.) My will power tends to break down pretty quickly. Plus, it’s just my nature to buck authority.
The blinking game ends when the first person blinks. That person lost the game. Although the game is usually for fun, sometimes the stakes are high. For instance, first person to blink has to run around the block, or load the dishwasher for a week, or become a hostile foreign leader’s lap dog/puppet/patsy.
Photo credit “The Staring Contest” by Anthony Letmon; found on Wikimedia Commons
J.E.M. Wildfire 
Nicely done. I remember Emily Post. But I’m afraid she is a little old fashioned these days. Still, there are some things it is not really necessary to discuss.
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Glad I’m not alone in my prudishness!
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First, thanks for the shoutout. Second, thanks for the memories of what we called “blinking contests.” We used to do that all the time when I was a kid and even when my kids were kids. But I honestly can’t recall the last time I was in one.
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Neither can I. Actually, I think I always started laughing, & that’s what really caused me to blink first!
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