Not again, oh, please, not again!

I know this says more about me than him (or you), but how good could $3,400.00 sex really be? I mean, can the sex be so good that engaging in this expensive several hours (I once read that the average sex act takes place in about 37 minutes!) could be worth exchanging the rest of a life. I have a very active fantasy life, but I can’t imagine anything erotic which might be worth $3,400.00 and everything else I have accomplished in my life, including all of my hopes and dreams for a future.

And this doesn’t even begin to speak to the hypocrisy of the act. As Attorney General for the state of New York, Spitzer busted prostitution rings with great enthusiasm and display, only to turn about now and engage in the very activity for which he condemned others. I know that when Jesus said “He that is without sin let him cast the first stone,” he probably meant to teach that we all have things for which we might receive punishment, and we should be careful of the quickness with which we condemn others. I think Jesus meant to advocate for some serious tolerance, human understanding, and self-examination. Or at least to feel some shame about our high-minded moral sense and judgments. Taken to its extreme, Jesus’ comments would preclude all punishment; we are all culpable, I’m sorry to say. We are all culpable, I happily admit. I think it was Jimmy Carter who was almost derailed by admitting only to lusting in his heart, and lately, he is the only President on whom no dirt has fallen. Look how he suffered for this very human admission, as if the rest of us were so pure. My heartful lustings are relatively free: sometimes I have to purchase an ice cream cone or a new sweater to satisfy them, but I never have expended $3400.00 and the rest of my life to satisfy them. And I have sins that it were better my mother had not borne me.

But I don’t take Jesus’ statement literally. Rather, what he here means to me is that we should not judge too readily or harshly, and we must not assume some high moral stance which reduces the sinner to some inferior humanity. Our hearts are all thankfully, impure. We have much to learn.

It is our human quality not to act on our every impulse. We are not animals. The Rabbis say that “If the Torah had not been given, we could have learned modesty from the cat, honesty from the ant, chastity from the dove, and good manners from the cock.” If we had not some ethical foundation, we would be no better than an animal. Our ability to reflect on our actions precludes instinctual responses that ignore consequences.

And though it is with promises of gifts that the cock coaxes his mate, it is his intention to produce chicks by the sex and not to engage in some exotic eroticism which finally is wholly solipsistic. And the cock doesn’t have to travel through several states and register anonymously at a Washington hotel to engage in sex. He stays in his own yard.What should make us human is our ability to consider the consequences of our actions, to recognize borders and boundaries to our behaviors, to create within those frames magnificent art, and to appreciate the largeness of life and relationships outside the immediacy of personal, expensive, and brief pleasure.

And I read minutes ago that the stock market rose 400 points, more than any day since 2002. Sex is great for the economy, but not very good for the country.