Sex to die for

Sex may be the one thing that many agree is the most pleasurable sensation a person can experience. It is usually free, usually easily attainable, usually can be done anywhere, and when done the appropriate precaution, can be done with no consequence other than lost time. So why is sex then the thing that can bring about the most horrendous death that one can experience to those who partake, and is doing so in record numbers to the point that some country's median age for life expectancy has dropped to 40 years of age?

Everyone knows that sex is the embodiment of what makes the world go. Without it there would not be the birth of our future generations. Those future generations, who will pick up where the older ones have left, helping to sustain life as we know it, and possibly, improving on what past generations have done. Sex is a good thing, some would say, as it allows a closeness to all involved, if that is what they seek. Some would say it allows people to be as base as animals, partaking only to relieve themselves of an animalistic desire. These same proponents would state that sex should only happen for the sole purpose of procreation. But no matter what the view of what sex should be or is, it is, in this society we live in, a facet of life that, when done irresponsibly, can be a weapon that kills people. This weapon is HIV, that ultimately turns into AIDS. Many reports have come out telling of the horrendous statistics regarding this dreaded disease, and the statistics are abysmal. To think that life expectancy has dropped to below 40 years of age in some countries, and to know that this fact impacts greatly, economically, spiritually, medically, on the society in which it is happening is frightening.

So why is this dreaded disease still subsisting, if not growing, exponentially? Is there so much despair in the world that people just want to feel the momentary pleasure that is sex so much that they forsake the knowledge that doing so might kill them? Is it that people want to feel that high that is sex and put aside the notion that they may too become a victim of this disease? Perhaps a point has been hit upon in stating the phrase "feel high"? Isn't that what we all seek? The "feeling high", the euphoria of getting a project done at work that receives praise from the boss, scoring the winning basket in a pick-up game, cleaning the house and going out to return to the wonderful smell of a clean house. These types of euphoria one must work at attaining, and are therefore, that much more meaningful.

But what of the easily attainable euphoria? Sex is one of the easiest to attain. There are always willing partners, there is always a place, it doesn't have to take up a lot of time, and you don't even have to take off your clothes, or do a lot of changing of your bodily positioning. But now a days there is a new element to having sex that requires work, and often times, more than a nominal bit of money, and that is the purchasing and the using of condoms. Sex is no longer an easily attainable euphoria. One has to work at feeling this high if one is to do it responsibly. And therein lies the problem. In doing so, being a responsible sexual person, a partner may be deemed by the other as sending a message to that accusing partner of being disease ridden, or of being "fast" as they were prepared and thus "hot in the pants" for sex. In some country if a woman even speaks of her partner using a condom she may beaten. Sometimes condoms may be cost prohibitive. Just the use of condoms cuts down on the euphoria of sex as it reminds participants that they are taking a chance, albeit, they have minimized that chance of contracting HIV by using a condom.

Sex as wonderful as it can be, has changed in its ability to be the sensual high that we know. The high is no longer so easily attainable, and in fact, may be less euphoric as this disease is ever present in all aspects of life. One always has to look at a potential sexual partner as a possible carrier. Whether or not people accept this change is where the problems lay. Ignorance, or perceived ignorance, is bliss as many are aware of how and why people get this disease, but do not want to think that the very thing can happen to them.