Hopeful Romantics

According to BreitBart the European the European Medicines Agency had by August, 2007 recorded more than 600 negative effects that were attributable to Botox.  This poses yet another wrinkle in the emerging Botox controversy where there are claims injections can result in harmful side effects, including death.   This could mean that Botox injections have longer lasting effects beyond the predictable four to six months.   While longer lasting effects mean you can get more bang for your buck, these are not necessarily the effects women desire.

Botulinum Toxin is at its cores a natural poison found in decomposing food that is a mere forty million times stronger than cyanide.   Of course the poison is injected in very tiny doses and until a relatively short time ago it was considered harmless.   Which is pretty amazing to start with.   But for awhile there has been increased evidence including the mere suspicion it seeps into the brain stem.   Perhaps for those that undergo frequent injections the loss of their brain stems is not nearly as big an issue as their youth.

Besides, when you stop to think about all the other dangerous stuff we put into or on top of our systems, Botox may offer less to worry about than others.   We use cancer causing phtalates on a pretty regular basis, along with the asorted parabens and other chemicals that are red flagged on many environmental lists.

Not to be the caped crusader here, I’m not.  But at the end of the day you have to wonder if a few wrinkles are worth injections of poison.  I don’t know, really.  People can make up their minds for themselves.  They will, anyway.  Even if it is banned, someone will make it, and women and men will use it.

So we enter a hyper competive world where beauty at all costs is the weapon against aging.  Aging is the enemy.  Again creates disappointment, disillusion and betrays our idea of the viable candidate for dating, sex, and romance.   In fact, the authorities could tell you flat out that Botox will kill you, and I remain assured that people will still use it.   It’s not that nobody wants to live forever.   It’s more that people believe they will never get sick and die.

The thing is we were born to lose.  We lose our looks, our hair, our performance, and even our mind.   The only thing that is tougher to lose when you are older is weight.   But everything else, you lose it.   You get old, you get sick.  And you die.   But with Botox, you never know, it could happen sooner than later.   Or it may not happen at all and all those upsetting wrinkles will vanish under the needle.

And if you do die a little earlier, at your friends can look down into your coffin and remark, “Doesn’t she look good?”   Who know?   Maybe it was worth it for that.

Reuters reported that actor David Duchovny has entered a facility for treatment of sex addiction.  Yep, that’s what they said.   As anyone who breathes air must know, Duchovny won the Golden Globe Award for Best Comic Actor for playing a writer with both writers’ block and sex addiction on the Showtime series, “Californication.”

When Californication first appeared on Showtime, the series was pilloried by offended reviewers who found his character particularly loathsome and the show itself mean spirited and exploitative.   I am paraphrasing here, but you get the point.  Later on, at least some of the more broad minded critics saw the merits of the show and changed their minds.   I loved the show from its first episode and thought it the right mix of quirky comedy and substantial delving into human complexity in romantic relationships.   In short, it reminded me of a lot of people I knew, and the show, indeed, mirrored their behavior.

So now I have to wonder in this case did life imitate art or art imitate life.   Was Duchovny nursing this sexual addiction for any length of time, and did it serve to inspire the show.  Or did the show somehow inspire the kind off brain waves that compelled him to become a sexual addict?

While I understand that all things should be measured in moderation, and in the case of sex there should be at least a modicum of restraint.   It’s one thing when you are very young and very frisky, when the hormones are surging and ED and  the relevance ofViagra commercials are the last thing on your mind.    But when you get older, you are supposed to cool it at least somewhat.   Not too much, because as a recent blog attests, if you don’t use it you may use it, meaning that sexual capability.

But then there is irony to this issue.   The sex drive is, for most souls, the strongest drive we have.   I know, sometimes looking around the supermarket or other public places, it is pretty hard to believe.   But, nevertheless,  the sex drive is a major deal for most of us.   The sex drive is the very mechanism that causes us to perpetuate our species and populate the earth.  The sex drive can overwhelm all rationale thought and can set all caution to the winds.

We will have sex at the risk of incurring fatal and debilitating diseases.   We will have sex with animals, vegetables and wet sand.  We will have sex at the risk of losing spouse, friends and material possessions.   We will have sex in the face of public humiliation.   We will have sex knowing in the aftermath we may be facing a painfully uncomfortable set of circumstances.   It is our deepest impulse, our greatest urge.

So then, how do you claim addiciton for our deepest impulse?  I realize in the civilized world we should demonstrate restraint and not risk the destruction of our families and our very lives.   We should be restrained enough not to embarrass ourselves and to not appear like sluts and pigs.   We should be coy and mannered, and above all discriminating.   But we are not.

So poor David Duchovny.   He makes a good living from a show about sexual addiction and then finds himself penalized for imitating the character that one him acclaim.   It’s a tough world out there.   And tougher with your zipper open.

This video was created by Casey James for Mean Magazine. To hear Casey James’ music you can go to Casey James and the Stay Puft Kid.

This video was created by Casey James for Mean Magazine. Casey James’ music is available at his website Casey James and the Sta-Puft Kid.