Had a decent sleep, but woke up coughing fitfully, and feeling worse than I did yesterday. I thought, since I felt an improvement Tuesday (0ver Monday) that this would continue today. It didn't.
Fransa's mom in law was discharged from hospital late, and more dilly dallying meant we never left for Cape Town today. I'm glad we didn't as each day represents an expense, and Wednesday just seemed too soon for me. The other thing is I have missed all my Wednesday tutorials (last week was a holiday) and so it was important I attended this one. Good thing I did as we were asked to make 2 presentations, and catch up with a lot of work for the next one. I also arranged to get copies of the book (The gods are not to blame).
It seems to me that man has survived a number of cataclysms. I'm talking about plagues, wars and the like. Each time a number of survivors develop a mythology to deal with those difficult times. Then, as we put poverty and misery behind us, we grow proud and vain, and lacking in discipline. The opposite of discipline is immorality. And it is no fluke that people have found, through the ages, a connection between the physical and spiritual world.
As an athlete, it is very clear how energy, vital to process of performing at a maximum, gets drained away by stress, by a lack of discipline and focus, by indulgences, by being reckless with one's own soul, one's own spirit.
We have survived cataclyms before, and developed a mythology to deal with it in future. For the Spanish flu we developed hat tipping and the curtsy (to avoid physical contact). There are plenty of other sayings that we dismiss in the modern era, as traditional and irrelevant.
Homosexuality presents an interesting case. There are many issues in society that determine how we treat each other and ourselves, how we govern ourselves, our view of the world and how to live, and thrive. Abortion is another, capital punishment another, attitudes towards bankruptcy and adultery and plenty more. In itself, being gay (being born as opposed to being conditioned) is perfectly fine, as long as it's a natural desire, and a natural expression of sexuality. When it is a choice, an indulgence, as in the case of being bisexual, then it encourages reckless promiscuity. Being promiscuous might be fine if it did not involve families and body fluids. But it does involve these, leading to disease of the body and infection of the family. Neither of these are healthy, or one, or all.
The stigma related to homosexuality is not completely undeserved. It is not so much a homosexual who is to blame, but the impact of that person on someone else who may begin to express sexuality in a way that is no longer healthy. Many homosexuals do epitomise a reckless, whoever's-available, attitude to sex.
As a modern thinker, I accept gays and lesbians. I have trouble accepting people who have a vague sense of their sexual identity, who have been conditioned through abuse, lack of acceptance or desperation/depression - because this can lead to prolonged heartache. At the same time, I'm aware that homosexuals lie at the source of a kind of moral malaise, where we (who are not homosexual) begin to question certain normative behaviour, entertain fantasies and indulgent behaviour, and cast aside basic inhibitions. Disease proves that this ought not to be encouraged, and by implication, the homosexual community ought to be reined in, if only in our thoughts.
Perhaps legitimising gay marriage is a good thing. What worries me are people suffering from an identity crisis, people switching and swapping partners willy nilly, out of a base desire for sexual gratification. Obviously as the number of sexual partners increases, so does one's capacity to be fulfilled decrease, leading one to risky experimentation, a road which leads to same sex sex.
It is these simple, but self evident truths, that we are in danger of losing, when we abandon our myths. Similarly, holding onto myths for the wrong reasons, is equally damaging.
In a world where people are unable to think for themselves, or their thoughts are troubled with matters of small consequence, myths and stereotypes (thinkling without thinking) becomes all the more important, and dangerous. Wield your thoughts with care, and be orginal if you dare.
The cycle works as follows. Struggle - develop coping attitude/philosophy/morals/codes/discipline - success - forget lessons learned - collapse - repeat.
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