Priorities

Ann Alhouse links to this narcissistic piece by Elizabeth Wurtzel about the fact that she is, alas!, 41 and not as sexy as she used to be. Ann comments on another part of the (very silly) article, but this later section is what caught my eye:

"Sex and sexuality, at least for me, are not some segment of life; they are the force majeure, the flood and storm and act of God that overtakes the rest. Without that part of me, I’d rather be dead. And I know all I can do right now is hold on tight to the little bit of life that’s left, cling to the edge of the skyscraper I’m slipping off of, feel my fingers slowly giving way, knowing I’m going to free-fall to a sorrowful demise." [my emphasis]

Wow. To hear someone talk about living her life with sex as the driving force is something that makes me sit back on my heels and think for a while. Of all the motivations - the raisons d'etre out there - could you possibly pick a more shallow and selfish one? Yes, selfish, because even though all sex involves "sharing" yourself with another person (at one level of intimacy or another, depending on the relationship), sex without a life-long commitment is oh-so-much more about you and what you are getting than it is about anything else.

I'm truly non-plussed by this article. To announce to the world: "my life has been based on the most selfish motivations known to mankind!" seems to be a trumpeting of the most base of sins. Accustomed as I am to hide my sins and flaunt them as little as possible (perhaps because I know they are sins, even when I don't want to stop committing them) watching someone tell the world their life has been based on the all-consuming sin of self-centeredness is a little too upside-down for me to grasp. No wonder the woman feels like she's falling off a skyscraper! Her life is based on nothingness - it's meaningless in every way that counts.

It's. just. ... sad.