All My Children

An uncomfortable problem for you as an idealistic young person, especially in the early teens, is the sharp contrast between the physical side of sex and the romantic, tender, spiritual side. By the time you are in your late teens or early twenties, these two aspects will tend to fuse together (sooner in one individual, later in another), giving strength and meaning to each other. But at first they are so opposite that they seem to battle against each other. Continue Reading »

I don’t think that the recent trend to earliness in dating and in going steady and in sexual intimacy means a readiness to share love, in a great majority of cases. In past generations in America, as well as in other Western societies like ours which are committed to advanced education, a great majority of young teenagers with aspirations were satisfied for a couple of years to be in love from a distance most of the time, with only occasional encounters; they did not become heavily involved until their late teens. Continue Reading »

While we are talking about the experimental, physical kind of sexual affair which fairly often goes on to intercourse nowadays, without any real love, I want to speak of illegitimate pregnancy. Many people assume, now that there are `the pill’ and other efficient forms of contraception, that unwanted pregnancies don’t occur. This is not so. In fact illegitimate pregnancies have tripled in the United States in the past twenty years. You wonder why it happens. In one type of case the boy and girl say it was because ‘one thing led to another’, without the young couple’s ever having planned it that way or taken any precautions. They may firmly decide that it was all a mistake, that they won’t let themselves do it again and so won’t have the need for any contraceptive. Yet they may succumb repeatedly. Such people are quite immature. Those with a sense of responsibility manage to control their feelings. Or if they make the very serious decision to carry on an affair, they carefully take the precautions. Continue Reading »