Celibate in the Country

I have been hearing a lot about the new movie, “Sex and the City 2” and decided to check it out. I am not much of a movie buff but when there is something special showing at the local theater, I will go see it. I Googled Sex and the City Review and found that the critics and movie goers alike were displeased with the movie.
“No redeeming values” is one reviewer’s statement. “Much ado about nothing” was another. All total, the reviews, for what they are worth, said that the film fell short of a success.
The reviews did get me thinking that I might try writing my own sequel, calling it “Celibate in the Country.” Yes, I know. Without sex in the title the movie would never sell, but it is an interesting concept just the same. Imagine spending an hour and forty-five minutes without a sex scene or direct reference to having intercourse.
Do any of you remember the television show “Petticoat Junction?” The three pretty sisters flittered about in every show but I can’t recall any of them even being kissed by a boy. I know, they went skinny dipping in the railroad’s big water tank but they never paraded around without clothes. Although the Shady Rest Hotel was located near Hooterville, the audience was never privy to what hooters were.
Another program of that day was “Green Acres.” It was created by the same man, Paul Henning. The Green Acres farm was located outside of Hooterville also and held the same moral values. The beautiful Eva Gabor stared with Eddie Albert in a comedic look at how city dwellers would act living in a country setting. No sex there either although the two actors made a lovely couple.
I know times have changed, but have they changed for the better? Our youth today are led away from imagination in so many ways. The old board games have been replaced by video monsters. Dominoes and cards are no longer part of growing up. Our children today don’t learn how to play and socialize except as led by some electronic program.
When I was growing up I had books and a radio. I drew pictures and designed futuristic dwellings I dreamed of building some day. The television was for news reports and a few well chosen evening programs, not the all day babysitter it has become today. Television and the cinema have taken away the mystery of sex which I grew up with.
I liken the electronic inundation of sex much like the illusion of magic. When we are young and innocent to how the magician manipulates his audience and uses tricks to distract, the mysteries he performs are seductive. The mystical feats of the magician keep us entranced and craving more. When we get older and are exposed to how the tricks are performed, his act loses much of its appeal. Not totally, but it certainly isn’t the same.
The comedians of this modern era bring us more insult as they introduce vulgarity into their acts. Since when did a string of four letter words become funny? I laughed right along with others as this slow transition took place, but now I look back and wonder how we could have let it happen. I enjoyed a certain comedian on television, I won’t disclose his name, and bought his newest CD a few years ago. It was so filthy that I never finished listening to the thing, and relegated it to file thirteen.
I am a prude, I will admit but I will continue to read my books, write for pleasure and dream. The world is so small if you don’t have an imagination. I prefer the vastness of my fantasies. I can be the hero or the villain and no one knows. I can span the universe in a single afternoon and sit beside a waterfall and be amazed by its simplicity.
Being an old fogy, I prefer simplicity. Country living doesn’t mean celibacy, far from it, but it is not the in your face sex we are exposed to daily on television and in the cinema. Let us lift our heads high and hold our children’s hands and help them grow to see the world as something positive and to respect those around them. Teach them to look for the mystery for without it we lose so much.