>> >I dont want to *be* a homosexual, just want to understand what it
>> >feels like.
>> Sunah Caroline Cherwin wrote:
>> I understand what you are saying, spike, but as in interim thing, isn't it
>> great that so many different kinds of people have written and sung and
>> painted and danced about what it is like to be them, and that your wife has
>> tried so hard to explain to you what it is like to be her and so forth?
>> I'll bet that not only do you have some idea about those lives but that all
>> these other shadows of experience have colored yours.
>
>Sunah, your post is almost poetic. Thanks! Yes, people have painted
>and danced and sung, however, how does anyone know what it is
>like to be themselves if they have never been anyone else? How to
>compare?
>
>Now that I think it over however, there are those who claim to
>have changed so much, it is as if they are a different person. Examples:
>former addicts. Former alcoholics. Religious born-agains. Accident
>victims. These folks can all come up with a good description of how
>they once were, and contrast how they are now. Wouldnt it be
>cool to be one of these examples and be able to switch yourself
>back and forth?
well, it's not just that; every time you make a decision the potential you on the other branch of the decision is someone you will never truly know. If you want to go regretting all the states you can never truly know you can knit up a lot of regret, there, cowboy. If you get someone to swap bodies with you so you can really know what it is like to be a woman, you will just know what it was like to be you checking it out for whatever finite time and place, and in the meantime you will miss out on whatever your usual body would have been up to. This is why I point out that although you can't really have it all, you get a lot out of the multiple perspectives you do have access to without the sacrifices you would make for actual access.