SATYRIASIS

We tend to think of infants as little human lumps to be loved, coddled and made much of yet, they are really tiny observing and learning machines. At six months, or so, they can distinguish between the races though they do not yet have the language to think about them. Also, they catch on to sex differences pretty quickly, I mean the differences between mom and pop are physically and behaviorally quite apparent. As part of that understanding, they also start to pick up sex related behaviors. Our parents, after all treat them according to their gender; boys get blue and girls pink, girls get frilly stuff and boys not. They are described differently, boy babies are reputedly more boisterous than girl babies, etc. Shirley, as a joke describes herself as “delicate,” and often did so with her grandson. An unintended consequence was that he began to call himself delicate; but his parents put an end to that pretty quickly. Delicate boys are outside the pale.

Some few years later, boys hang with boys and girls with girls. They play different games and even when the game is the same, they never play on the same team. Every now and then there is a hoorah when a girl wants to play football or wrestle. Tradition and god are invoked, usually two unbeatable arguments in the face of rationality. I mean, if a girl can make the team, why not? But, boys almost never try out for a girls team, I have never heard of it, it seems unfair. I mean, what boy says I am too weak to compete against boys, competing against girls is what I can do. Rational, yes, but too horrible to contemplate.

In the process of reaching puberty, boys and girls face increasing pressure about involvements with each other. AT some point, early on, brothers and sisters may not share a bedroom, much less a bed. Even though neither group has much enthusiasm, they know they will have to confront each other in the no so distant future; I don't know about others, but that scared the hell out of me. But, yes, hormones and social pressure guarantee intermingling (except for a few oddballs such as me) and lust becomes part of the equation. Well, the process continues and sexual activity becomes more intense, often culminating in “doing it.”

“Doing it” almost always satisfies the boy but somewhat less so the girl. Still, what society and hormones have pressed upon them has been satisfied; there is some sense of pleasure in doing it, after all it's a marker for maturity and independence.

Everything settles down. The rate of such activity varies as the participants grow older. Boys catch on there is more to girls than their breasts and vaginas and girls discover that boys can be nice. Without noticing it, they become, more or less, sexually mature.

Well, some don't. I think I mentioned a patient who had sex four times a day, his wife in the morning, once with a girl friendat noon and again with his wife at night. All participants were pleased with this arrangement. Another, a married man, had his sister as his noon-time bed partner but whether his wife knew or not I have no idea. Others, much more common, give up sex early on partially accounting for affairs and prostitutes.

And, then there is Mick Jagger, Wilt Chamberlain and others of that ilk. Jagger has boasted that he has done it with four thousand women. I don't have the figures to calculate how many per year (I guess about 100) and how often with each one. Still, to me it seems a heroic number as if he has competed with other men for some sort of prize. Will the man with the most get to heaven, or enjoy the benefits of hell? Does he ward off fear of his own sexual incompetence? Is it that women, tearing their clothes off simply leap at him in such manner that no hetero could resist? Inquiring minds … etc.

It's pretty clear that he doesn't get emotionally involved with them and I imagine he pays many of them. As far as I can tell, he does it for penis pleasure and if that's the case, he simply masturbates with woman’s bodies.

So, keep it up, Mick. You, I hope, are happy and surely most of that four thousand are at least pleased with themselves. My daughter knows a woman whose claim to fame was that she did it once with Paul McCartney. That act, I assume it is true, makes her a minor celebrity at the annual Beatles-fest. I guess pride is where you find it.

If in excess you find it worth doing

I mean random uninvolved screwing

It is a good bet

That you'll never forget

Well, if too many there's really no knowing.