A note from New Orleans

In the midst of emerging spring, in the city whose natives describe her as “the crotch of America,” I wonder: Is there a chance to redeem the notion of the erotic from the purely sexual and pornographic?

Here are Terry Tempest Williams’ thoughts on “The Erotic Landscape,” from Red:

I wonder about our notion of the erotic –– why it is so often aligned with the pornographic, the limited view of the voyeur watching the act of intercourse without any interest in the relationship itself.

I wonder what walls we have constructed to keep our true erotic nature tamed. And I am curious why we continue to distance ourselves from natural sources.

What are we afraid of?

The world we frequently surrender to defies our participation in nature and seduces us into believing that our only place in the wild is as spectator, onlooker. A society of individuals who only observe a landscape from behind the lens of a camera or the window of an automobile without entering in is perhaps no different from the person who obtains sexual gratification from looking at the sexual play of others.

...[true, deep] eroticism, being in relation, calls the inner life into play. No longer numb, we feel the magnetic pull in our bodies toward something stronger, more vital than simply ourselves.

Looking at some tiny purple crocuses blooming in my front yard last Sunday I had a brief experience of this landscape of erotic bliss. Not experiencing the natural world as cut-flowers-in-a-vase, but as rooted and living, an integrated part of the natural world, the difference between looking at pictures of disembodied genitalia and actually making sweet, succulent love with one’s beloved.

Then last night, strolling up Bourbon Street and looking at the vacant-eyed, barely clad women beckoning from the doorways of nightclubs, I felt the stark difference. The hawkers promised sexual gratification, but I think while the voyeurism of watching live sex shows and “barely legal” strippers might lead to momentary satiation, it could never produce real satisfaction.

Williams quotes D.H. Lawrence: “There exist two great modes of life––the religious and the sexual.” And she says that “eroticism is the bridge” between these two modes. What would happen if we engaged with eros, that bold and juicy energy that suffuses everything with passion and power? It would be scary. And it might be the only thing that could span the chasm.