Does sex keep you young?

Last night my husband and I (ages 43 and 42 respectively) went out to play some pool with some new young friends. And when I say young, I mean YOUNG! Celie recently took a maternity leave for a co-worker (here in Canada that means a full year) and although this is Celie's first full time job and she's tips the scale at a meager 23 years, she and I immediately hit it off. We've been out for drinks together, done some shopping....and planned a trip to the adult toy store so I can help her pick out her first vibrator! lol...So, last night when she and her boyfriend were looking for something to do in this new town, we invited them out to play pool...and we had a blast!

Perhaps that in itself, isn't blog-worthy. But what I decided WAS worth mentioning, was the fact that this seems to be a....trend with us. I have found in recent years that I tend to gravitate towards the younger crowd. Those young in years...as well as young at heart. I find I have much more in common with my neice these days than with her mother. And I find that so many of the women I have called friends for the last 25 years have, bafflingly (is that word?) become OLD on me! If I am out for the evening with these friends our conversations tend to revolve around mortgages, kids and work. If I happen to comment on a young hunk that is walking by, I get only disapproving stares. And when 11:00 pm rolls around and I am just thinking it's time to hit the dance floor...they must head home, lest they turn into pumpkins.

So, while I still spend some times with my "old" friends, I have found I get much more enjoyment from interacting with young'uns (from ages 23 to 50)....people who like to indulge themselves in hedonistic activities like dancing and pool playing. Who aren't above trading dirty jokes, or discussing the advantages of battery-powered over glass. And who aren't always watching the clock, lest they stay out a few minutes past their bedtime and end up with bags under their eyes to mar their pristine-Sunday-morning persona.

So, I look at myself and ask...why? What is it about me that seems to make me so different from the friends I had so much in common with for so long? And the only answer I can come up with is...SEX! The erotica that I write and read, and the romance that is such a key part of my creative life... has spilled over into my "real" life and has had the unforeseen benefit of rejuvenating me. Of keeping the passion and spontaneity in my and my husband's life and, frankly...keeping us YOUNG! (Of mind, anyway, if not of body. Because I've still got the aches and pains of a 42 year old, that's for sure! lol)

So, my question, I guess is....what keeps YOU young? Do you think sex and passion can serve that function? That when our libido shrivels up and dies, that the rest of us will follow? Or am I imagining it and there is more to this equation that I am just not seeing?