“Semelparity: an animal or plant waits a very long time to procreate only once, does so with suicidal strenuousness, and then promptly dies.  The act of sexual reproduction proves to be ecstatically fatal, fatally ecstatic.  And the rest of us are left merely to say, Wow.”

Semelparitous creatures: bamboo, agaves, Pacific salmon. 

Jim Elliot comes to mind. 

 I suppose that’s at least one notable similarity between salmon who goad themselves upstream, upwaterfalls, upwhitewater to get to their breeding grounds where they blow their, um, supplies and die of exhaustion and earnest young men practicing chastity.    Perhaps they don’t all meet such early and unfortunate ends as Mr. Elliot.  Still.

You may not die a virgin, but you may die just barely not a virgin.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 4th, 2008 at 2:35 am and is filed under Beware of church, In truth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.