I'm man, you're man, all man just man, man.

Living in South Dakota, I've never had the chance to hire a prostitute or escort, never paid for sexual services rendered or even a hand to hold. In fact, I don't think I've ever met a working girl.

But that won't stop me from giving my opinion and speculating on what, exactly, a situation like that can bring about in a man.

Because here's the deal: sex isn't just sex. You can whinge and gnash all you want, but there is now way to separate sex from emotion, or at least perceived emotion, or (at the very least) some sort of attachment. I mean, if you've gone ahead and made a conscious decision to engage in intercourse with another person, then you have at least a tenuous bond with that person.

Here's the thing: our sexual preferences and activities are closely guarded, and to tell another person what one or all of those preferences or activities are takes a certain amount of trust, and that trust, no matter how insignificant the amount, is perhaps the deepest sort of trust we as individuals can bestow.

I'm saying that we as a(n American) society are sexually repressed and maybe even confused, and when we allow another person into that precious little bubble, whether we've paid, were paid for the service, or have a happy and healthy relationship with a significant other, that modicum of trust and the fact that your bubble has been penetrated (pun intended) means that the both of you have been connected, have been brought together, and no amount of denial or rationalization can deny you your emotion or connection.

And that will spawn jealousy. That tiniest of connections, that smallest amount of trust, is enough to ignite in a man the most fierce of protection. What a man's is is his own, no matter how petty. Even if that is a girl paid to work for him at a moderate price for sexual services rendered, that connection is enough to grow a gnarled green spike when it is perceived to be desecrated or infringed upon.

We are all helpless in the face of personal destruction. We fall as lambs before wolves as personal security, integrity, honor or pride eat us alive, rotting us to the very core. The world in not naive and humans are not invincible. As the world burns around us, we spare no time for the living, and none for ourselves.

More another time.