So here is something random I thought about after someone bit their lip the other day. It was one of those bad ones and it obviously hurt like h*%#.
This got me thinking about how many other people have suffered from this horrible fate before and for how long this must have been a “thing” historically. I would assume that biting your own lip must have been around for as long as our species has been around, which got me thinking that why hasn’t evolution solved this? I mean its pretty unnecessary.
So I came up with an argument that basically concludes that physically it is not possible to avoid it for the purpose of our existence and well being. Our evolution as humans has prioritized two superior features. These two features clash with each other and from this stems the unavoidable outcome of biting your own lip.
Fist one being the use of our month to create sounds for communication. Because of its flabby and elastic nature we are able to make sounds which allow us to communicate.
Second one is being able to eat safe foods and safe textures which will not harm our fragile digestive system. We have to have the ability to feel and sense the material we put into our mouths to know whether it is harmful or not, hence the heightened sense of feeling (pain).
These two combined make it physically impossible to avoid the unfortunate side effect of sometimes biting our own lip instead of chewing gum or what ever else we stuff inside our gobs.
What do you think? Is there any logic behind this or have I left some variable out?
kamakawida 