Posted by Matiz on September 18, 2000 at 12:31:33:
In Reply to: Stages of Monger Development posted by XMan on September 18, 2000 at 10:02:46:
| The next stage is, as you suggest, to examine yourself. As Socrates said, "the unexamined life is not worth living." (BTW, contrary to popular opinion, it is possible to maintain a philosophical/spiritual curiosity about yourself and your life and fuck chicas at the same time. Far from beeing mutually exclusive activities, they are highly complementary. Most guys just choose not to mix them.) Guys who don't make it to this stage inevitably remain stuck in the addiction stage or burnout entirely. The guys who do make it to this stage seem to eventually fade into the background on these boards because most guys are at the earlier stages and, frankly, don't want to read posts about us dealing with our own issues, as interesting as they may be to us personally. So I won't bore you with discussing the relation between evolutionary biology and male sexual behavior in TJ, or Redsnake as a virtual substitute for male tribal meetings, or differences in attitudes between young men and older men. (No applause, please.) I'll just say that on a personal level, having moved through and beyond the "kid in the candy store" phase and the "rescue the chicas" phase and the "favorita" phase and the addiction phase, to the "self-examination" phase, I've found TJ to be an always fascinating, usually entertaining, occasionally dangerous field laboratory for self-examination and experimentation. I've resolved some personal issues in my life, satisfied and purged longtime fantasies, fixed new goals, and, on the whole, gotten somewhat of a grip on my own sexual needs and perspectives. Whether the pace of self-growth can continue indefinitely in this same laboratory--with the same chicas, and the same bars, and the same hotels, and the same smells and garbage in the streets, is hard to say. Is there a better laboratory? Is there a stage beyond this? Self-awareness? Self-understanding? Happiness? Monasticism? Quien sabe? Still working on it, though.
|
|
|