New Horizons For Fifty - A Different View of Things

     Preface: I'd first conceived of "consent culture" as the  antidote to "rape culture," but after just a  bit of googling, I learned just how long the term has been around. Therefore, this is my take on it in a "let's see what  naturally follows to me when I think about the term" way. That said, this is but a conversation starter, and I hope that people reading this will feel free to add to or take away as needed, for both short and long-term.      "Consent culture" is defined as gestures and expressions that help create a safe space for people to explore their sexuality and the spiritual side of their sexuality, burgeoning, evolving or continuing, without having to worry about unwanted attention or touch. At its core is asking permission to touch another person's body, but it goes many layers deeper than the flesh. This should not be that hard for people to grasp, especially those who started exploring their non-vanilla side in da...

On Happiness and Joy - Gregory Ragsdale I once equated happiness with joy. My experience and the words of those wiser than myself have helped me shed a light on the flaws in this point of view. I believe happiness is a state of being; a long term frame of mind that spans many different variations of emotions, feelings and instincts.  Joy, on the other hand, is fleeting. It is something that we experience for a moment or a few and then it is gone until it visits us the next time. For me, joy is like an orgasm. The first time I experienced orgasm, I was very young (topic for a complete essay on its own) and my initial musings afterward had to do with why I could not feel like that all the time. Looking back, I now understand that I was actually angry and resentful toward God for giving me the capacity to experience something so amazing and then prevent me from always enjoying that sensation.  Of course, I did not possess the theological chops to discern that at the time, b...