The Birds & The Bees

In the gym today I casually picked up the Newsweek and was immediately pulled into a fascinating article about the evolutionary and scientific paradigms about romance, love & sex.

I eat that stuff up like candy, so I had actually read a lot of it before but there were a few things I found particularly intriguing and hilarious.

There was one section about how we choose mates by recognizing through specific olfactory signals that our mate is enough unlike us genetically to guarantee a viable pregnancy. It went on to say that being on birth control, and the hormonal fluctuations characteristic of this, pervert a woman's ability to correctly receive those signals.

I had a moment - mid squat rep - where I thought to myself, "well, that explains everything." And then I had a good chuckle to myself in a public place - but it was ok, because they were all listening to their iPods.

All my heartache because of birth control.

If anything helped me stop feeling so damn sorry for myself, it was that. This is a two-sided coin. It would just be easier to believe that if I wasn't the only one without, oh I don't know, pictures of me and my new guy/girl half-naked on top of me on my myspace page. For example. Totally random.

I had a discussion with my friend Drew about why New Yorkers are neurotic.
Because they always think about the future and try to grab it by the throat, they unconsciously alienate themselves from all present reality. Which of course further propels the anxiety - its a cleverly self-sustaining system. No wonder everyone thinks we're always in a hurry.
Well mostly Drew said it and I said, "whoa...yeah, huh?" Clearly I haven't quite caught on just yet. But I can absolutely contribute my share of neuroses.

Its funny that one day, probably by the time I have children, they will be able to isolate all the compounds that give me whatever anxiety or compulsive disorder or chemical defecit that I have. They will be able to isolate them and then to remove those mutations from my children's genes.

I think I wouldn't.
I think that would be a shame.

I love Kate Nash.