I Get By With The Help Of My Friends

A rare moment in the Netherlands

I dare to call myself a naturist even though I am not nude all the time. When I am nude, I am typically by myself. When I am nude with others around, typically it is just with my wife. On occasion, I am nude with a few others present, if only for a short while, with people who are neighbours who are used to this eccentric old man who keeps losing his clothing. A few times a year, I meet others at what I could best call my home naturist club, Green Haven Sun Club.

I’m an introvert. Typology I test as an INFP, the rarest kind of personality type. Even though there aren’t that many of us, it seems that it isn’t so rare for writers, being an introvert. For many of us, it is about finding our voice and celebrating it. Like other introverts, making friends is a slow process. We count ourselves lucky to have one friend in the face-to-face world which seems to be overloaded with extroverts, people who gravitate to people and know how to hold their own and often even become the centre of attention because of their personalities.

I have one very close friend, my best friend, the woman I married. I can’t imagine life without her. In the face-to-face world, I have friendly neighbours. How friendly would they be to me if my wife wasn’t in the picture? Likely they would still be just passing faces who say hello when passing on the street. Yet, because of my best friend, they have become my friends as well.

Thanks to social media – don’t you just love that term? Social media – I have found other friends. Somehow, I have the energy to “socialize” with a number of others. Three men have become very good friends, two of whom I have now met in the face-to-face world. Meeting them face-to-face has validated what was assumed due to online conversations over the years. A few women have become friends as well, though not to the same degree as the three men. Perhaps it has to do with gender differences, perhaps it has to do with me, or them. The fact that I am a man who is married might also figure into that equation. I’ll likely never find out.

Yesterday, I got to meet the second of the three men whom I count as friends. These two men are both authors with whom I have been in conversations with for six years. The third man is a newer friend. Somehow, I have the feeling that sometime in the future we will meet as well.

There are other men and women who are more distant friends. Strangely enough, all are naturists. Perhaps over the years, more of them will gravitate to becoming closer friends. Now as I think of it, I realize that I am now blessed with friends, a strange feeling for an introvert.

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16 Responses to I Get By With The Help Of My Friends

  1. Naturist Fab says:

    Very nice blog Robert. Who knows, perhaps one day we shall meet!

    Fabien

  2. Robert Payne says:

    Friendship for anyone close to INFP type is an extraordinary accomplishment.!

  3. DAVID JOHN HAMILTON says:

    Never would have thought you an introvert , Robert .

    INFP ? What is this and how do we know ?

    • rglongpre says:

      Introvert versus extrovert – being with others drains energy rather than energizes.
      Intuitive versus sensate – what is unconscious known is given more weight than is known via senses
      Feeling versus thinking function – when the gut says one thing and thoughts say another, gut wins out
      Perception versus judgement function – world is seen in colours and multiple shades of gray versus everything being black and white.

  4. Brian says:

    Hi Robert

    I name is Brian and I’m a nudist from Melbourne Australia would love to get to know you and have a chat cheers

  5. Pingback: Nudie News

  6. Allen Knudsen says:

    Naked introvert greets naked introvert, Robert. I wonder if that’s why I feel I know you so well, even though we have never met, and our exchanges, here and elsewhere, have been brief. I also am one who scores as an “INFP” on the Myers-Briggs scale. Yes, we are rare; it’s a blessing to find that one is not alone.

    As it is a blessing to find others with whom to be naked, when one identifies one’s self as a “naked-getting guy”. But not quite so essential, perhaps. And I think it helps to be a bit introverted when one is a writer. Although a friend at a naturist resort once said, “Well, you have to be a little bit extroverted to be a nudist.”

    But I’m not so sure: I seem to do quite well showing up to my laptop wearing nothing.

    • rglongpre says:

      In the naturist world, there is a belief that the “social” aspect must be present to be a “true” naturist. Solitary naturism is seen by them as being nude and not naturist. As for us being friends, Allen, we are. Perhaps one day we will get to meet.

  7. William Bade says:

    This article describes me. I follow your A Canadian Naturist regularly. So many of your self-descriptions I can relate to.

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