The cessation of sex as liberating is an interesting contrast to our usual talk about the subject, and would make a fascinating conversation. Doctors tend to want to work at bringing the old sensations back (See Viagra, etc.), but most of us of an age recognize that love and affection easily replaces lust, and holding and touching is satisfying enough to fill the need we have for intimacy. (That never goes away.)

I have to laugh when younger people feel sorry for us old folks because to them our sex lives are over. No, it’s not over, it has simply moved to a different, less exhausting plane. And in that sense, yes, it is liberating.