Lust

What do we desire more than anything? What do we crave, then deny because we call it lust?

We label lust sin, weakness, corruption, and sometimes cruelty. Yet desire is part of humanity. Attraction and reproduction are bound to our biology and our history.

We monetize desire. We place it on products and in magazines. We package bodies, movement, beauty, and suggestion into images, advertisements, and social media attention.

TikTok, Facebook, Instagram: human attention becomes a commodity. Sometimes a dance is art or entertainment. Sometimes it is deliberately sensual. Sometimes it is both.

We ask: Why are you looking? We might also ask: Why was it displayed, for whom, and why does the platform reward it?

None of those questions alone proves guilt. A person's display does not control every observer's thoughts; an observer's attraction does not grant ownership of another person's body.

But denial can prevent us from examining desire honestly.

We decorate the door, but a door remains a door.

If God is good, what is lust? If attraction itself were entirely evil, why would creatures reproduce through attraction? Perhaps we must distinguish desire from possession, attraction from exploitation, and pleasure from corruption.

The question is not only what I desire, but what desire makes me do.

We recognize lust in others more easily than in ourselves. We cover one eye, see selectively, and call ourselves innocent.

Perhaps lust extends beyond sex: desire for power, attention, status, money, possession, or somebody else's happiness.

Why does pleasure give us hope? It briefly says that something good is happening. Desire promises possibility; pleasure offers a moment of presence. But pleasure passes and desire returns.

The body says: I want.
The mind asks: Why?
Society asks: May I?
Religion asks: Should I?
Commerce asks: Can I sell it?
Technology asks: Can I keep you looking?

Maybe morality does not begin when desire disappears.

Maybe it begins when both eyes remain open.

Yes, I desire.

Now what will I do with that desire?