“Our individual development depends on realizing that others cannot understand our experience.” I chose this quote to begin this post as I have constantly throughout the decades tried my damndest to have others understand me, my thoughts-ideas, and my orientation to naturism. That is a problem with my typology which has me focus on others almost from the word “go!” In an attempt to have others as the focus, I lost sight of what I was trying to do and basically passed on my own, individual development. Now, at the age of 70+ I see that most of us are oriented to twisting ourselves like pretzels in order to accommodate others. This is a problem.
What do you want for yourself? What do you perceive that you need for yourself? How do you take care of yourself? How do you achieve a basic level of satisfaction for being alive and on this planet? If any of your answers include an “other” then you are diverting the focus from yourself to an “other.” An example of this can be found in the photo above. I took this photo for my journal this morning. I wanted to capture the Buddha image and the fireplace in operation with my normal dress code in the morning. No “other” was involved in the image, nor was an “other” considered as a rationale for the image. It was for me, plain and simple.
When I typically add one of my images here, I consider “others.” That means I crop judiciously, or place the watermark in such a position to reduce potential tension in others. In doing so, the watermark becomes something different. Now, all of this is going on in my head. For the most part, no one cares one way or the other about the images I post here. What does have meaning, are the words used in the posts which the images act as visual illustrations. The posts that have something that connects with others receive likes and comments that have nothing to do with the images. Interesting.
So, here I am exposing myself to the world [well, the tiniest fraction of the world one can imagine] visually and ideologically. The screen stares back at me in silence, unmoved and disinterested. I intellectually know that once I hit the publish button, someone will read the words and see the image. Despite that intellectual knowledge, in exposing myself so intimately, I have removed myself from the collective, the norm. In effect, I am left with a feeling of heavy separateness – the focus on self equates with a real loss of others.
Naturists/Nudists – whatever the hell we want to call ourselves, know that in daring to be an individual – transparent, authentic, flawed, scarred, different, unique – we suffer the loss of others. Our social world contracts drastically. And so, we find ourselves putting on clothing even when weather and environmental conditions don’t require clothing, just so that we can be less alone.
Do any of these words resonate with you? I am listening.