This is not the best kind of image for promoting the philosophy of naturism. However, it is a very real image of how one copes with the weather here on the prairies this morning. It was only 8 Celsius with a breeze and very heavy dew when I took this photo of myself. I was outside before the sun’s rays had reached our back deck which meant that I chose to wear a robe.
This is “normal” whether I am alone or having coffee on the deck with my wife, normal that is until it warms up enough for me to remove the robe, typically when the sun’s rays peek over the neighbour’s trees to flood the deck with warm, healing light.
I don’t pretend that it is possible to remain nude all the time at home here on the prairies. On morning’s such as this, even though it is the middle of summer, that I add warmth via some sort of clothing, or stay in the house and turn up the temperature. Since I love being outside, being forced to stay inside with central heating is akin to being imprisoned. So, like my ancestors of the distant past, I use coverings to retain my body heat.
So, what’s the point of telling all of this, a rather boring piece if I say so myself? It is simply a preamble to what I call “fundamentalist thinking” on the part of a number of people who claim to be naturists or nudists. They see themselves as purists as they spend every hour in every day, nude. Of course, they live in a different world than I do. Weather isn’t a factor, or else they rarely venture outdoors when weather conditions are not favourable to being nude.
For these fundamentalist nudists, their nudity becomes a badge of honour, behind which they hide their insecurities. They use their self-proclaimed authority as “purists” to judge others much the same as those who wear obscenely expensive clothing and accessories to stand above others. Camouflage is camouflage – hiding the vulnerable self and coming to believe that their camouflage is their only self. No matter how one looks at it, fundamentalist thinking is self-deceit.
So, in an attempt to be real and rational, I do my best to remain present in the outer world which requires that I pay attention to the natural world and the human society around me. Only then can I make choices for when and where I can be fully nude.