Sex

The clear trajectory of contemporary Western thinking is toward expanded individual freedom--though often without the equivalent focus on the consequent responsibilities. The time is past where the church (any church) is the authority on appropriate sexual behavior. We are saturated in the media with images of sex and violence. Sex is used to sell us everything from shoes to toothpaste to shampoo to snack foods. And it works. Teen bodies are oversexualized. We all wade into the sexual morass with little healthy initiation.

So how do we think about sex then. I suggest we simply think of sex as a form of communication, be clear about the message and take responsibility for what we say--responsibility to ourselves and to others.  Sex can speak love or intimacy or violence or dominance or pure pleasure or indifference or anger or lust or comfort or biological urge or friendship or spirituality or a thousand other things.

It might even be of value to step outside of our human condition and ask what the birds, the bees, the whales, the praying mantis and the bonobo tell us.

What can be said through and about this most complex and profoundly pleasurable act of the human condition?