Did You Get to First Base?

Somebody on eXtwitter posted an assertion of traditional sexual morality.

Somebody else posted the old dodge, 

How are people supposed to know if they are sexually compatible?

(This particular instance was last fall, when I wrote this blog post too late to be sure I was ready to publish it and then forgot about it.)

My reply started with 

Two people who want to be sexually compatible will find a way to be sexually compatible.

The response proposed an analogy about batting cages.

If two people want to do batting practice with each other, they will head to the park with a bucket of balls and a couple of bats, not to the batting center.

But batting practice is a little different from sex. Batting practice doesn't make babies.

-- unless pitching is a metaphor pitching woo, I guess.

That metaphor about first base being holding hands or something, and a home run ...

Here's how it really stacks up:

Holding hands is a game of catch.

Kissing is batting practice.

Sex before marriage is a foul ball

Sex after marriage is first base.

Having babies is bringing a runner home. 

Getting those babies safely grown up is winning games.

It's not the only way to win games, but it is the usual way. 

And foul balls don't necessarily mean a lost game. They can be recovered from.

Yeah, this is taking a metaphor too far, but it needs to be said.

Penetrative sex is not going all the way. Neither is getting pregnant.

Going all the way for real is doing your best to get your kids safely grown up.

(In a certain religious context, grown-up would include safely into God's heaven, but that's another topic.)

(Posted without the wall and revising here.)