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Wow, that's an exotic title. Gymnos is the root word for "gymnasium." It's foundationally a Greek word, meaning "naked." The ancient Greeks and other cultures believed that sports was best done in the nude, and a perfectly sculpted male body - because women were property, more or less - was a tribute to the gods, in whose image we were cast. Bacchus was a Greek deity, renamed Dionysus by the Romans who appropriated this god of the grape-harvest, winemaking and wine, of fertility, ritual madness,   religious ecstasy , and theatre. And I have been locked in a mental and physical battle for dominance by these two conflicting philosophies of life. The first is a focus on physicality and fitness. Of being athletic and healthy, enough so that one shouldn't mind being seen naked upon occasion, as with the ancient athletes. For much of my pre-marital days this was my mindset. On the other hand, during my college years self-indulgence set in....

If you don't recognize the titular reference, it's for a character from the tv show The Big Bang Theory. Kind of an appropriate show name for this topic, which is sexual experimentation. I am a firm believer that people of proper consensual age be encouraged to experiment sexually. Most of us do, anyway, but sexual and mental health depend upon a secure and enjoyable sex life. Without societal permission to explore sexual wants and needs we can assume roles which are not fully rewarding, and, in fact, can be quite damaging. I know this sort of thought is unusual, and will certainly never happen in modern American society. Many Americans have enough trouble understanding that they need to keep their minds and laws out of someone else's bedroom, let alone letting little Johnny or Sally try same-sex oral. Or multiple partners. Or anal, or mutual masturbation, or, or, or... Part of our sexual identity forms as a result of experience. Lacking that experience can lead t...

Anyone who takes a moment to look at the shear volume of posts and topics on this blog can reasonably assume I think a lot about sex. True. I have physical, aging and emotional things I'm working through, and this is part of my therapy. In its own way, the blog is kind of my time on the couch. One of the fundamental things on my mind as I review and talk about my sexual issues is the question of how I got to the place I am now. What formed my personal attitudes and sexual appetites, and how does/did my my physical health inform them both? In short, to spare the reader some time, I'm an overweight middle-aged man who's entire current sex life is essentially masturbation. I'm very happily married to a wonderful woman, who happens to be experiencing some significant traumas medically, leaving her unable to have vaginal intercourse. She doesn't like oral sex, and neither of us is into anal. Her difficulties aren't the focus of the blog, but help frame my c...

(Not me, but could've been) (My usual entries are about sexuality, my physical condition and other thoughts, but every once in a while I'm going to discuss incidents which happened in my life and changed/impacted my view of same. This is one such time, and though it may read to some people like a letter to Penthouse, it happened and was an eye opener for me in many ways.) By my third year of college I'd established a bit of a sexual reputation among my friends, though as a group we were all very active and open. Not a bad reputation. The opposite, in fact. Open to virtually all things and not shocked by much,  but also quite considerate of the people I had sex with. In the fall semester of that year a new student arrived in the dorms and was set up as a roommate for one of my regular group. At first we thought the woman - whom I shall call Mary in the time-honored tradition of naming any nun in a story "Sister Mary", although in this case "Mary...