Pleasant greetings, Jazz Pickles!
In my weekly newsletter to subscribers of my creative writing thing The Naked Cartoonist, I explained that, like a NASCAR driver who has to pick up his dry cleaning and grab a few things at the market in the middle of a big race, I am driving myself too hard.
So after nine months of weekly NC articles, I’m moving to an every-other-week schedule. As I mentioned in my note to subscribers last Friday, my wife is supportive, but my dogs have threatened to leave me if I don’t start paying more attention to them.
I suspect most readers don’t have time to read every article anyway, so I’m giving you a break, too.
Last week’s article was called “Sex—Creator & Destroyer: Some thoughts on my trip down the birth canal.”
It’s about my experiences learning the facts of life as a kid, and how sex drives our adult behavior. Here’s a fun quote from early in the story, excusing my mother for telling four-year-old me a fairy tale about where babies come from:
“Did I really need to know that my existence was the result of an act that would have embarrassed Caligula? (Or maybe he would have asked to watch? I don’t know that much about ancient Rome.)”
Later, I admit:
“I eventually learned about sex the same way I learned about marriage—by doing it poorly again and again.”
After a humorous assessment of how much our sex drive controls our behavior in ways we rarely even realize, I observe how, in some ways, we often don’t find out who our spouse is until we reach an age where sex isn’t a major drive anymore. With that attraction (and peacemaking activity) removed, we see beyond how their ass looks in tight jeans and get a much clearer idea of who they truly are. It can be revelatory in both good and bad ways, as the truth about anything usually is.
I confess that while I miss “chasing tail,” I am enjoying the freedom of no longer seeing everything through testosterone-colored glasses. In many ways, my senses and reason have returned.
People don’t usually talk about this stuff, but I can’t seem to stop myself. It’s not called The Naked Cartoonist for nothing. You can give it a try for $5 a month.
English (US) · 