| March 28th, 2001 � The Mystery of Sex A popular song, often heard at weddings, goes something like this: "As it was in the beginning, is now, until the end, a woman gets her life from man and brings it back again. There is love..." (The Wedding Song, by Noel Paul Stookey). The inspired accuracy of that truthful lyric cannot be over-emphasized. In the physical as well as the psychological the man typically initiates and the woman responds. Obviously the anatomical set up is designed for the male to enter as the woman opens and receives. And likewise even in traditional practice it is the woman's perogative to accept or decline an invitation to dance, court, marry etc. In fact, it's interesting to note that in the time-honored rules of proper etiquette it is considered rude and socially unacceptable for a man to extend his hand to greet a lady first. A gentleman was supposed to wait for the lady to extend her hand if she found him acceptable. Even her right to choose whether to handshake or not to handshake was politely honored and respected by society. My how times have changed! Sex is not just physical. Contrary to a recent popular song, we are not just mammals! In a very real sense, the "woman gets her life from man and brings it back again". In the book of Proverbs, often referred to as the book of wisdom, we see this in amazing detail and clarity. In the passages which follow, the father is talking to his son; So ladies, please don't think this is all one-sided. The genders can be switched in most cases. However, as we shall see, there is gender specific application inherent to the parts that men and women play in each others' lives. For example, statistics clearly show that there is more of a market for female prostitutes solicited by males than vice versa. This being so, it is more likely for a woman to play that part, and thus a man to be warned against giving in to such. "For the lips of a strange woman ("strange" meaning: a lover who is not your wife, or husband) drop as a honeycomb and her mouth is smoother than oil: But her end is as bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword. Her feet go down to death: her steps take hold on hell... her ways are moveable (unstable)... you can not know them." (Proverbs 5: 3-6) Here we see the deceitfulness of seduction illustrated. It promises immediate physical gratification but always ends in destruction, confusion and great loss, physically and spiritually. The father goes on to tell his son in graphic symbolism that to go into her is to give your honor away to others, your years to the cruel, to give your wealth and your labors to strangers, and that in the end you will mourn when your flesh and your body are consumed, and say, "Why have I hated instruction... why did my heart despise reproof? Why have I not obeyed those who tried to warn me?" And then finally he gives this instruction to his son: "Drink waters out of your own cistern, and running waters out of your own well. Do not let your fountains be dispersed abroad, nor rivers of waters in the streets." (literal translation; Proverbs 5:16) "Let them be only your own and not strangers' with you. Let your fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of your youth. Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy you at all times; and be ravished with her love. And why would you, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?" (vs. 17-20) The Bible likens a virgin woman to a cistern (a covered well) which has obvious implications of both physical and psychological significance, and a virtuous married woman as a well with running waters. This latter comparison is interesting. Notice also the man is attributed with the likeness of a fountain. To understand this you have to understand how a well works. A well, or any body of water, with no movement will go stagnant; the water must be kept moving, unless it is a cistern, or sealed well. The fountain symbolizes the man inducing movement in the woman, symbolized by the well, so that both may drink and be replenished again and again. A man with multiple partners disperses his fountain in the streets, and consequently his substance is wasted and it will ruin him physically, psychologically, and spiritually. Elsewhere, a woman with multiple partners is compared to a deep ditch, or sewer. [To be continued] |