Des Downunder On Sundays

By Des Rutherford, Adelaide, Australia- Sleeping with the Friendly

As I sit here in Australia at 7pm, it suddenly dawns on me that the population of the USA is probably asleep, in the wee small hours that will soon become America's morning, except for those who must work, some of whom are patrolling the streets looking for criminals who are out busily giving meaning to the lives of police officers, or emergency service personnel frantically saving those who have fallen victim to any of the hazards of not yet being dead. We mustn't forget that some people know that beds aren't just for sleeping. They are not asleep even though they are in bed. What could they be doing?

Praying?

We don't really have to mention those people who are doing unmentionable things in bed, because they will soon become too drained from their labors of love, or finally become too exhausted to continue. Either way they will soon fall asleep unless they stay awake the remainder of the night worrying about their performance, which they should never do if they were the only one in bed, and even then their best answer is to try again. Sleep isn't all that will come.

Older people, of course, may take a little longer to fall asleep, mainly because it takes them all night to do what they used to do all night when they were younger, but none of us want to think about that.

One thing that never fails to keep me awake is the sudden realisation that the person I am sleeping with is the enemy. Not that I like to think of anyone as the enemy, and certainly wouldn't deliberately, you understand, but when you get an offer from the hottest guy on the dance floor, you aren't to know that his politics aren't the same as yours; unless you get him to fill out a survey of his opinions before you take him home. You were feeling quite content and satisfied after the essential bonding in your bed until he wished you, “Goodnight,” and muttered something about how he hoped marriage would always be one man, one woman, as he drifted off into a deep sleep, imitating a coma.

You suddenly jerk wide awake. What did he mean by that? Just with whom have you shared what you thought was bliss? Why do you instantly feel the need to shower...for three days? And why won't he wake up; should you ring for a doctor, a psychiatrist, or a member of Congress? Is there a hotline for comatose conservatives?

Then, there are those who are their own worst enemies at the moment of their personal joy. They jump out of bed, fall to their knees, and ask some lord for forgiveness. Forgiveness for what? Being made happy? Daring to share that moment of life we call making love? Consummating a new friendship? Expressing affection and intimacy with another human being? Alas, he has dressed and gone before you can ask him any of these questions, leaving you awake in bed for hours, wondering what the hell could have brought him to such despair that he had to run out the door, leaving you with unfinished thoughts.

These enemies of the state of bliss are living through nightmares foisted on them by others who gleefully sit up all night thinking of ways to make other people suffer the same sense of guilt that they have about sex. These mentally incapacitated insomniacs are disgusted by the sexual demands of their own bodies, and have failed to mature into loving individuals capable of sexually expressing such love. For them, all sex is an abomination only to be allowed off the leash with a spouse, preferably not enjoyed (which explains the need for extramarital relations), and then only as a solemn duty, solely for procreation. They pay no mind (an easy task for them) to the expression of love through sex with others, preferring to rage war, and to incite fear and hate, rather than to make love and live in peace. They do not understand the values of the spirit of human love, only believing the immature nonsense of their infantile superstitions and fabricated rules of tribal etiquette, which leads them to feel they have to spread their bigotry. Well, they don't. It isn't needed or wanted, but that shouldn't be interpreted as a denial of their right to believe what they want. It's just that the freedom to believe whatever you want must be reciprocal without condition.

They want everyone else to join them...for what purpose we might ask, since all they do is sit up in bed afraid of their own reaction to sex.

It's probably to form a cabal or a cult forsaking sleep in favour of thinking up diabolical and abominable accusations to be made against perfectly normal human beings who dream of loving each other, and moreover, express their love for one another.

Those extremists are the fundamentalist interpreters of old books and texts from another culture in another country, wildly out of date, out of context with the modern world, and regrettably used to torment people into going out of their minds. They actually connive all night trying to work out how to save people who are not the least bit needing to be saved, except from the thought of an afterlife with those people.

They need to be freed from the torment of their indoctrinated self-imposed, hatred of nature and the living. They need to learn to trust friendship, and respect other peoples' mutual expression of love as an intrinsic human right.

It seems that all we can do is keep telling the fear-mongers that their psycosis will be slept away when their nights of ignorance end and it dawns on them to accept that making love is not a sign of human imperfection. Freedom to love is a song for a him, or a her, an anthem to celebrate life; a life where we all can accept each other as an equal partner for an orgasm, if we so consent. The point is that no one should be able to deny other adult persons consenting to make love, and that is what the bigots are actively attempting to do. The bigots are the enemy, who need a good night's sleep after a fulfilling orgasm.

What a shame they don't realise it is natural and wholesome. What an atrocity that they should proclaim love as a sin? What a shameful horror that they think of their fellow human beings as the enemy who must be forced to stop being loving so that they can worship an ancient culture's idea of a god. That's hypocrisy and blasphemy against life, intelligence, reason and faith in human nature. No wonder no one wants to sleep with them.

Be sure to give your loved one a kiss goodnight, regardless of their gender, you'll both sleep more contentedly, as friends who are lovers, do.