In a recent interview, Alyson Hannigan answers the question “How much sex is enough sex?” by saying (paraphrased): “When there’s always a part of your body that hurts just little bit — like, you’re getting ready to leave the house for the day and wondering ‘why does it hurt when I move like tha-- oh yeah…’ — that’s ‘enough sex’.”

First, I’ll agree with anyone who offers the observation that this is a flip answer — the interview was in Maxim and if there’s anything I’ve noticed about that magazine it’s that none of the interviewees take the process particularly seriously — they seem to use it as an opportunity to make random outrageous statements that they can later deny simply by saying “Come on, that was in Maxim.”

That said, as a good rule of thumb, I liked it.

Heck, let me take it further and say that I think it makes a pretty good rule of thumb for everyday living; How do you know that you’re not just coasting along, keeping the engine at about 1500 rpm and idling through every day? Well:

“When there’s always a part of your body that hurts just little bit — when you’re getting ready to leave the house for the day and thinking ‘why does it hurt when I move like tha-- oh yeah…’ — that’s when you know that you’re really participating in your life.”

It might just be a bit of preemptive sophistry on my part to make the annual deterioration of my body sound cooler, but there are worse things, I think, than always having a story to tell about what you did the day before — even if you never have cause to tell it.

At the end of my days, I hope that the most accurate summary of my life is not “Generally, I felt fine.”

"No pain, no gain."

"If it were easy, anyone could do it."

"We find comfort among those who agree with us -- growth among those who don't."
-- Frank A. Clark

"There are risks and costs to a programme of action, but they are far less than the long range risks and costs of comfortable inaction."
-- John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963)

"The lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest and then becomes a host, and then a master."
-- Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931)

"We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about."
-- Charles Kingsley (1819-1875)

CALVIN (walking through snowy field): You know, Hobbes, it seems the only time most people go outside is to walk their cars. We have houses, electricity, plumbing, heat .... Maybe we're so sheltered and comfortable that we’ve lost touch with the natural world and forgotten our place in it. Maybe we've lost our awe of nature. That's why I want to ask *you*, as a tiger, a wild animal close to nature, what do you think we're put on Earth to do. What's our purpose in life? Why are we here?
HOBBES: We're here to devour each other alive.
CALVIN (in the house): Turn on the lights! Turn up the heat!
-- Bill Watterson (b. 1958), _Calvin & Hobbes_ (6 Jan 1991)