A Proposition

I propose this to anybody out there that's in a relationship that uses the term "love" and legitimately claims to mean it. To all those out there that engage in one-night stands, friends with benefits, open relationships, general whoredom(and the like), this need not apply to you. The proposition goes like this: Do not have sex with your significant other for one month. The reasoning behind this is as follows; this is a test to see if your relationship can endure the trials of daily life without the panacea of sex to wipe the worst of issues away.

Now by all means, if the smell of doom is in the air at the very prospect of attempting this little challenge, then please don't ruin things on my accord. Maybe this is all a form of torture, maybe it's a revelation into the essential workings of a relationship, but the possibility of finding worth and appreciation in one another without the aspect of sex is a cause that has no price tag. The physical discomfort of climax lacking shall never truly subside(if it's what you've always abided by), yet what will happen if a shred of foresight were ever thrown into the picture?

Tell me what happens if you or your partner becomes physically unappealing after a time? Shall the well dry up, utter disgust parch your passions? Or let us imagine sexual performance wanes with age, physical prowess diminishes with years, and your level of satisfaction isn't met. Do you then throw away your significant other like a worn pair of shoes? Let us even fast-forward to geriatric days(God Forbid!) when physical intimacy becomes neigh impossible. Since we've arrived at old age are we content to not experience sexual pleasure anymore, and thus prepared to grind out our remaining years with this person because of a lack of desire to illicit change?

Tell me, when does it end?

Stress later on down the line makes you incapable of lust-making. Are you now damaged goods? You suffer bodily harm and can't function at full capacity. Do we toss you to the curb? Finally, you suffer an emotional trauma that leads you to warp intimacy into a pain-filled gauntlet of excess debauchery. What then?

What all this is seeking to unearth is if there is love strong enough to survive the absence of sex. Are the two mutually exclusive? Do we claim to love someone merely to reap the benefits of love making? Does caring for someone stop if the sex does too? Regardless of talking in the hypothetical, is there love that exists purely for loving the actual person, and not merely the parts in which you extract pleasure from one another? Has love become tolerating the worst in each other to be rewarded with sexual lust? Is that fair compensation? Is that even love?

Perhaps a month is too much, then again maybe it's too little. Before the utterance of "love" is spoken let us think about what loving someone actually is. It begins with taking the good times with the bad times (i.e. not leaving at the first sign of hardship). It continues with taking the ugly with the beautiful, and the ups and downs of actually being invested in another person. It’s loving the flaws and working together through the worst of life. The compensation for that is having someone who loves you for you, and vice versa. Actually loving somebody entail being selfless, being capable of sacrifice, compromise, and dealing with issues that sex alone can't solve. Find yourself someone that you truly love, and then sex won't be the sole reason for having a relationship, but rather the logical progression of loving every facet of that individual.

Take me up on this proposition, or don't......either way it won't affect me, maybe just you.