It’s Sunday morning in Olon. I am a rather subdued person at the moment. I didn’t sleep all that well and woke up tired. I could blame it on the heat and humidity, but that would be a stretch. The truth is, I am slightly depressed. Maybe the overcast skies this morning are partly to blame. Maybe the constant political warfare in Canada and the USA is to blame. Maybe it is just something I ate. Of course, it is easy to blame someone or something for how one feels, especially when those feelings are negative about self and/or others.
One of the topics that has me wondering and perhaps a bit grumpy, is a recent debate -a kind word for disagreements- about normalising naturism. Nudity and naturism, in our western world, is definitely not normal, not the norm. The nude body is the natural state for all human beings. No one that I know, or have ever heard of, escapes the fact that clothing is an “add on” for a host of reasons. Nudists and naturists are outliers in our contemporary world. It is the way it is and nothing I can say alters that fact. Humans in a state of nakedness is a rare event, rarer when in the company of other people. None of these points can be translated to say that there is anything inherently moral or immoral about a human without clothing, or about a human wearing clothing. Being a moral or an immoral person is about something beneath the skin.
Polarised thinking and living, what I call “fundamentalism” with or without a religious underpinning, exists in people whether they are nude or wrapped up in so many layers of cloth that determining gender is literally impossible. Throwing the word “naturist” or “nudist” out into the world as a self-descriptor, and expecting that somehow one is magically more honest, more ethical, or more moral is all about using the terms naturist and nudist as a mask to hide the negative aspects of self, to hide one’s shadow. People vested in clothing project their discomfort of self onto others, people vested in nudity do much the same. The risk in shedding clothing is accepted and embraced as though one is a martyr for a cause. Why was the clothing removed? Honestly, though most seem ready and willing to proffer answers, the truth is usually buried in the unconscious. And few are willing to peel back the layers of consciousness to see what lurks below.
I am not an activist, nor do I care much if others become nudists or naturists. I am self-aware enough to know that something about being out of my clothing is therapeutic for me. I guess that means that I am selfish when it comes to being naked. I don’t for a moment that being nude makes me a better person vis-a-vis other people. It does make me a better and kinder person to my “self.”
Being a better person has to do with self respect, and a healthy respect for others whether they are buried beneath layers of material or nude. It begins with the eyes which dare to look into the eyes of others, daring to transform a relationship from “I-It” to “I-Thou.”
And your thoughts?