Naked we are thrust into this world from the warm and safe confines of our mothers, some of us come quietly and do not make much of a fuss while others come out kicking and screaming. Others still have to be extracted and spend weeks or months in a neonatal ICU.
No matter how we enter this world there is one thing that remains the same, the world before us is limitless in its possibilities. Some babies will die their in their mothers arms lost and confused and others may grow to be president, which does not eliminate the probability that they will remain lost and confused. In today’s world it is likely that we will live for seventy plus years and die in a bed someplace lost and confused once again.
Of the people I have known and watched be slowly lead away from life were both of my grandmothers. One died under the veil of Alzheimer's, which to me is possibly the most horrible ways to go, looking out through your eyes and not recognizing the things before you, even if you have seen those things thousands of times before. Stripped of being you, your body slowly gives up and lets you move on.
I have seen others die much faster but I assure you that each of them has had a moment where they were lost and confused, possibly even longer before the darkness closed in around them.
I do not write these things to shine a light on the terminality of death but to get closer to my subject… life. Life is a constantly amazing struggle. We are constantly set upon by choice after choice and the even greater issue of the result of the choices we make. Do I get out of bed? Do I really want to go into work today? Should I answer this phone call? What if I cheat on my spouse? Should I go back to school? What underwear should I wear today? What is the limit of who I am? Who am I?
People often talk about going back to a “simpler time” or enjoying a “simpler life” but you cannot achieve either simply by buying a time machine or moving to live in a forest (or whatever your “simpler life” happens to be). We are all creatures of our pasts, our experiences, and the events of each day we live. Moving to a new location or time will not change the past or the way we approach things.
For example, here is a situation: You are in an elevator with a very attractive member of the opposite sex. They lean over, stop the elevator, and then start to kiss you. You have never met this person before but you do find them extremely attractive. There are a lot of factors that might weigh into your decision at this point. Some might be, how horny you are, if you are married, if you are faithful to your spouse or partner, if you felt that you could carry the burden of knowing you cheater on someone, etc.) All of your past decisions and experiences would come into play in determining how you reacted to the situation.
In the end I imagine that most people would do it (not just because the world really does revolve around sex) but that people believe that they can get away with it, that no one will know (even if the little camera in the elevator is recording all of it). Even people who are morally against such a thing might jump at the chance to experience the release that can be found in pure lust.
This brings me to a greater question of morals and ethics. In today’s world it seems that the people that “define” our morals and ethics are commonly the ones that are being caught breaking the rules. I have stated, for quite some time, that morals and ethics are a personal thing and that in general they cannot be applied to a society. I do not disagree that a society in itself needs to have rules and guidelines for the betterment of the community.
On the other hand I tend to avoid following the laws and rules of our nation just as many people do. Even people who are faithful to certain religions tend to fail to follow the guidelines they expect others to follow. (How often does Jerry Falwell judge other people?!) I have my own set of ethics and morals, I do not expect others to follow them and some are similar to the rules that most nations have adopted (no stealing, killing, etc… unless of course there is a valid reason for such ;)
Time for another example, and yes I am going to use sex again here. Why sex you might ask? Because people both enjoy are fear it. There is a constant concern over the amount of sex in the world yet those same people want to have more of it. They don’t want to expose their children to it which makes the children all the more interested in it and drives them to learn on their own. Sex is nothing more than the physical bond between two people. This bond might last minutes, hours, months, or years. It might be the physical manifestation of two people love, lust, boredom, friendship, need, or even a financial transaction. Sex, all by itself is nothing more than two people, be it male and female, female and female, or male and male, bumping (and thrusting and rubbing and biting and … ) body parts together. We have put such a high importance on the act of sex that it has become the ultimate expression of love even though it is simply nothing more than how we reproduce and hookers get paid for letting men screw them every day.
Before I get to the example I want to step back and say that it is not the act of having sex with someone other than your spouse or partner that causes the issues. It is the emotional importance that people put on sex. Because we as humans have “decided” that sex is the pinnacle of how we express our love we tie such strong emotional bonds to it that if our significant other does have sex with someone else we cannot help but feel hurt, like that private act that was reserved for just the two of you has been spoiled by another. When, in fact, your spouse probably just had physical urges that needed attention and most cases where people cheat it is because they feel that their needs are not being met be it physical or emotional needs.
Now… back to my example of morals and the ethics of the day.
For most people there is nothing wrong with having sex with your spouse. (Lets just keep it as a married couple right now, since you start to get into all kinds of morals when you talk about unmarried people and homosexual lovers).
Even fewer people would object to you and your spouse being outside. But if you combine the two then you have suddenly crossed a line. You can even go to jail and receive a sex offender tag.
Who does the act hurt? No one, not even if a buss load of pre-teens were to drive and catch you while one is wearing a dog collar and the other is holding the leash. Sure, it might provide for an uncomfortable situation but kids are smart. You can sit down and talk to them, tell them what was going on and discuss it openly they will be accepting of what happened and likely forget about it a few days later (if not hours or minutes). They will not be scarred for life, the only way they will be scarred for life is if parents and the community drive into them that their bodies are something to be ashamed of and that sex is bad.
Now, I am not saying that kids should be having sex or that everyone should be fucking on the street corner (it would be terribly difficult to get anything done). I am all for public nudity though. I think that if we eliminated clothes and stopped driving into kids heads all the horrors of sex and the human body that we would a) be a lot mentally healthier, b) be a lot physically healthier because people would be more active and keep their bodies in better shape because you cannot hide behind baggy clothes when there are no clothes, c) rape and sexual crimes would go down. I know that most sex crimes are crimes of power not passion but by eliminating the power that is generated by the act of seeing someone naked or having sex then we could go a long way towards stopping these crimes. It is ironic that rape, which is basically the act of taking away someone’s right to choose to have sex and I consider one of the most horrible crimes, is against the law while people that are against rape (and taking away a person’s right to choose) are also against abortion (and the right to make a choice). (That of course is a very simplistic view and the two issues have many sub and side issues to them and in no way am I saying that rape is OK or that Abortion is right or wrong).
To get back to my example, personally I do not see anything wrong with two, four, one thousand people having sex out in a public area. Now, I do imagine that it would cause quite a stir if it became common place (just think about having to step over two people having sex just to check out at the supermarket). Would there be something wrong with that? No, but it could be inconvenient. I’ve personally come across a number of people that were having sex in public (a few even in numbers greater than two) and I’ve committed similar acts myself. None of which have offended me, caused me to go blind, or changed my outlook on the world.
Now, to tie everything together, in life we have a lot of choices. Some are easy such as do I brush my teeth today? Some may seem easy but then later we wish we had chosen differently (Such as what underwear to wear). Some are complex and seem impossible (What child do I save from falling off the cliff?) Our personal history is what provides us with the ability to make the choices at whatever level we select to do so. Once made, we move on to the next choice and the next one until we run out of choices when the veil of darkness closes around us. We are only limited by our own personality, our own limits, our own version of what is right and wrong. To that point I am here to say that setting limits on yourself that stop you from trying new things, experiencing everything life has to offer is a horrible thing to do to yourself. If you find yourself in this position you should look to make a change in yourself before you make a change in where you live or if you have invented time travel then when you life. Changing where or when you are does not change who you are. Sometimes they can help you do so but if you are not willing to make that change then location and time will not make you any happier.
In the end we all go the same way so get out there and live life. Don’t limit yourself.
