one fish asks another fish "how's the water?" The other fish replies, "what the hell is water?"
As a society we are /used/ to wearing clothes. So used to it that even the thought of being without them evokes many fears and often shrieks of shock. When trying to explain nudism to someone who has never experienced it they often have a very hard time contemplating the idea. They imagine all sorts of things, non of which come from the actual experience.
I'm often jealous of those that get to live full time in a clothes free setting such as Cypress Cove. I love the very idea that to me clothing should be the feeling that is strange. In my daily life I often feel like I'm there, but I also get the strange feeling sometimes that I should be dressed ( I know, perish the thought ). I push through it because I know this is how I want to be.
Still, it occurs to me that this idea of a fish not knowing what water is may be a good way to help someone understand why nudists like going without clothes, and perhaps what is wrong with the perception of clothing being a "normal" state.
But one day, perhaps more of us can say, "what the hell are clothes?"
My previous post reminded me of a story I read years ago in "The Event (now known as Naturally Magazine)" about a nudist mother who had taken photos of her family at a costume party at their nudist club. In one photo her ~11 year old daughter looked to be dressed up in what might be something of a provocative costume to a non-nudist. But to a nudist it was an incredibly innocent photo, something any one of us would want to take of our own kids.
When this family took the film to be developed at the local photo store ( yes this story is that old ), the store employees did not panic and call the police. The family was very open about their nudist life and friend who worked at the photo lab that knew they were nudists was able to see the photos in the light we all would want, as no big deal - or just cute family photos.
It was a great story of how being open about nudism in your life can be a good thing. If you hide your way of life, that implies there must be something shameful about it, and people can take that queue from you. In my humble opinion, its better to be open about who you are.
There are many stories out there about nude photos being stolen from phones and shared with the world, and this one is reallly no different. What makes these stories worthy of news organizations publishing actual stories is that our society still sees the nude body as something to be hidden. We never hear in the news about people having photos of their bare feet shared all over the Internet.
When I was growing up my mother had this theory about cookies in a cookie jar. That when left out in the open, they are consumed slower than when they are hidden. The idea being that when they are out in the open they are less interesting when they are just always there. When hidden, its easier to act like they are special and that you may even be decieving yourself a bit about the rate at which they are being consumed -- there are always plently left until you eat the last one.
My point quite simply is, we should all do more to make nudity normal. We should be taking our queues from countries that have a healthier body/self image. It should really come as no surprise that "sexting" and stories of stolen nude pics seems to be uniquely American.
So if you find yourself the center of one of these stories, the best way to diffuse the issue is to simply shrug it off. It only becomes a big deal because you make it so, and that doesn't help our collective body self/image.
My daughter had Nuance as a vocabulary word for school - she's in sixth grade. Her assignment last night was to use that word in a sentence. Here is my answer:
"When it comes to comedy my teacher has a fairly nuanced wit. How else do you explain these highfalutin vocabulary words?"
In the end she went with:
"I can see the nuance of each snowflake as it falls on a cool winter day."
Of McCain's VP selection Andrew Sullivan says that, "by this decision, McCain has rendered himself unfit to run a branch of Starbucks, let alone the White House."
There are many places where getting an all over tan is probably a bad choice. One such place is the handicap access ramp at a local office building here in Morris Township, NJ -- where Salvatore Sena decided to get some rays on a recent Sunday afternoon. The result is as you would expect - police intervention.
A township detective said that Sena didn't have any other place to work on his all over tan. There are many good places in the area you can go that are safe and out of the way. But an access ramp at an office building? Wouldn't have been my first choice. And anyone who says they saw me there last Thursday at 11:22am is a liar. Thpppt.
So we just bought a new HD TiVo and order two new CableCARDS to make it work, and Damn. This thing is absolutely amazing. So many HD channels and the all look spectacular. We watched Mythbusters in HD last night, the Coffee creamer explosion in full HD - wow (episode 105 for those keeping track).
Now, the TiVo series 2 unit we had before is still hooked up and working fine, it's just moved to another room. Multi-Room Viewing with TiVo is simply an awesome idea. Each one can see the programs recorded by the other -- though the S2 can't play HD recordings :( . Still, this makes the kids happy, they can watch their shows in either room, and their season passes won't clobber our shows anymore - yay!
And lastly, Verizon FIOS kicks butt. If you plan to go with Verizon FIOS, let me know and I'll put you in as a referral - there's some kind of special or somthing, and I get a kickback - sweet.
We've been to Penn Sylvan (PSHS) many times, and while we can make a day trip of it, it is still a bit too far to go regularly. It's a great place, very family friendly and you can't beat having an indoor pool and hot tub.
It's nice to see PSHS get some publicity. The Reading Eagle (Reading, PA) has a great story about PSHS, it's history and relationship to the local community. If you happen to be visiting the area or simply passing through, PSHS is a must visit.
Oh, and this explains what motivated the Eagle to find out about the legality of nudism (see my previous post).
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