Checking Out

I remember reading a science fiction short story a number of years ago. I don't really remember much about it except there were two teenage characters, one a boy and one a girl. I suppose they were a couple, they were certainly friends who hung out together nearly constantly and had too much time on their hands to ponder the state of their futuristic lives and because of that became involved in some sort of adventure or were caught up in some kind of predicament. But I don't remember any of that. What I do remember is one odd little fact. The teenage girl's father didn't worry about all of the time his daughter spent alone with the teenage boy. It wasn't that he trusted them, he had taken her to some kind of genetic doctor mad scientist practitioner where they had done a procedure that "shut off" the part of her brain that was interested in having sex. When she became older or her parents deemed her responsible enough to make the decision on her own, they would make another appointment with the doc and have her sex drive turned back on again. How convenient! And lately I've thought how practical that could be. Just turn off those pesky hormones that addle the thought process and get on with the business of life without that particular distraction. I have a friend who takes an anti-anxiety drug that she says does that trick for her, and for many others. One of those side effects that take three pages of tiny print in a magazine to disclaim after the photo of pure bliss and happiness in the ad touting the drug. But then I think about another friend who has so much of himself shut off with various pharmaceuticals to get his personal demons under control that he's not really there any more. Which makes me think that I'd rather keep all of my channels up and running. So to type. The monkeys in my head are pretty well-behaved most of the time. Not completely under control, but then, that's when things get interesting. Sometimes fun. And what would I have to write about if life ceased to be interesting. And what would life hold for me if I could no longer recognize fun. This girl is not going to shut off parts of herself! Bring on the interesting, bring on the fun, throw in some endocrine cocktails! For today, at least, I'm grateful for the ability to deal with my demons without intervention.