To Scent

I think living in an urban environment tends to nudge most of us towards heavy uses of sight and hearing as the primary senses. Touch and taste come next. And the last one that's of major significance seems to be smell, except perhaps when it comes to food.

One thing that's been fascinating me lately is how people smell different. I'm not talking about the obvious scents like nasty body odors or heavy perfumes, but the general biological and acquired scents of each person. Some females smell particularly musky, and somewhat different during the different times of month. Others are mostly scentless except for the lingering aroma of the shampoo/skin cream/sunblock. One of my male colleagues smells faintly of beef and something of dog, and yet another male colleague smells something of goat and something vaguely metallic.

Consciously recognizing each aromatic signature is key to knowing who's standing behind me, along with the other signs like the general height and mass from the floor's vibrations. Besides the identifying factor, it's just interesting to pay attention to the less used senses for a change. I guess that is how animals with stronger senses of smell become able to readily distinguish between people. Being able to mentally mark out the individual constituents of each scent goes a long way towards identifying unique aromatic signatures.