Looking for Love in Yemen. Bilal Ahmed, in Monday's Souciant.
This was sad: In most circumstances, sex isn't an escape but rather a return, like a slap in the face or jumping in to ice-cold waters. It brings you face to face with the present moment, but experienced with someone else in the most intimate way. My guess is that when you are constantly looking in to the eyes of death, via drone, gun etc you are almost always in the moment and this "moment" is terrifying. In this case sex would be an "escape". Most people outside of war are constantly in a state of daydreaming, surfing the web or texting with friends. For them, sex is "a return" and not a "departure". -I'm not sure if that makes sense?The fact is, that in cultures such as that which exist in Yemen, most people know this. While I can’t speak for women, obviously, for many young men over here, who are unmarried, there is no escape. They remain lonely, and threatened, to the point of despondency, fearing that circumstances have not only imposed a potential expiration date on their lives, but have denied them the right to any escape whatsoever, in the present. What happens to them?
I think it does. The need to feel alive is partially a need to feel fully in the present without alienation or sadness.