Beyond sex
10/07/2009

My friend Dr. Jennifer Freed is the host of a radio program called FREED UP! on VoiceAmerica.com.  Today she interviewed Mama Gena, founder of Mama Gena’s School of Womanly Arts (http://www.mamagenas.com/), which “trains women of all ages to use the power of pleasure to have their way with the world.”  Mama Gena’s premise seems to be that women’s sexual pleasure is the potential driver of creative change in the world.  From the photos of ecstatic, empowered, fun-experiencing women on her website, it appears that Mama Gena is on to something. Something I don’t get.

I don't wish to take anything away from the women who are turned on--energized, invigorated, inspired, rocket-fueled--by Mama Gena's coaching.   There are many paths to personal growth.  I just want to suggest that perhaps it's not sex that is the energizing factor.  Perhaps it's connection.  Connection with their own life force; connection with the Divine Feminine; connection with their creative potential; connection with Another. 

The thing is, there are countless ways for us to connect--and when sex is not a factor, people are pretty much free to connect using any of them.  Mama Gena told me when I called in to express my confusion that I could strap a rocket-pack to my creativity if I reconnected it to my clitoris. 

Please. 

I've got more important things to do than orgasm. 

Don't we all?  I mean, unless you're 16- 36-year-old with a ticking biological clock, we've been there, done that.  We've been hooked up, knocked up; played, been played; had sex, had kids, had marriages and mortgages.  It's all been great.  But now there's something else to do.  LOTS to do. And, not to knock orgasms any more than I'd knock sunshine, but they're not what get me up in the morning. 

There are greater things waiting for all of us.  Like making a difference in the world.  Like painting something as beautiful as Cecily Brown's image on this blog post.  Like mentoring young people.  Like sharing community, like stopping war.  Like derailing this military-industrial juggernaut that's bankrupting our country.  Like growing food, and sharing it with people who don't have any.  Like enacting healthcare reform and practicing Buddhist economics.  Like travel.  Like song, laughter, friendship, and home-cooked meals around a table.  There are many things that inspire passion in the world; many ways of connecting with the eight billion souls on the planet. 

Sex is only one of them.

It's time we grew up and got busy.

Artwork by Cecily Brown/vidabo/Photobucket