I cannot describe the freedom I get from being in a community where everyone is respectful, open, honest, helpful, seeking and speaking truth as we recognize it, and being naked. I don’t know if you noticed, but I intentionally put the naked part last.
Nudity isn’t necessary to live in peace and harmony, but it helps. When you’re naked, you’re more inclined to think about how you can help someone instead of taking advantage of them. I have yet to meet a naked person who is malicious. It’s funny how they only seem to exist in the textiled world.
When I’m at Bare Oaks, I feel at ease. I do not need to worry about being taken advantage of. We go about our days being happy, participating in exciting activities, and enjoying each other’s company. We say hello to each other when we pass by campsites or on our way to the park's common areas. We stop and chat for some time. We watch out for each other. We care about each other. This is a community.
In my textiled community, I don’t know my neighbours. I live in an apartment building with over 1,000 residents and do not know any of them. Here at Bare Oaks, all I had to do was arrive, and I was accepted, and people took interest in me as I did them. I have tried to take an interest in the people I meet on the elevator of my textiled apartment building, but they seem reserved and unwilling to talk openly. We lock our doors and aren’t open to dropping in on each other. It’s a strange world out there.
I’ve owned houses. They were located in communities known as neighbourhoods. My neighbours were friendly people, but we rarely socialized together. We’d lend a cup of sugar or a gardening tool, but we didn’t bother to sit down and learn about each other. The textiled community, in my view, is paranoid.
There was a time when I would fear being honest about my nudism practices with my textiled neighbours. “What will they think of me?” My various spouses would tell me to be careful of what I said to others about that. They, too, were paranoid about their reputation. I have a friend who has a very private backyard. The closest neighbour is 500 meters away; the house is set back from the road by 100 meters. When I asked if I could disrobe, they said, “Not here, the neighbours might see.” I’d ask them, “That’s ok, what’s wrong with that?” and they’d reply, “I live here.” Indoors, no problem. There is no hope of being natural and free in their secluded private backyard. Our parents teach us to keep up appearances.
I grew up in the 1960s and 70s. At that time, women were supposed to be subservient to their husbands and were considered less than perfect if they didn’t have a husband and children by a certain age. Those ideas were passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years. We were all supposed to live in this tiny little box of normal. The concepts of modesty, purity, and virtuousness put a real sense of stress on us: Misogynistic and controlling thoughts which are unnatural.
Fifty years later, we are starting to come to a time where we finally understand that we can control our thoughts and, therefore, our behaviour. These old rules of “NORMAL” behaviour would fall down dead if we all learn how to think and take away the power of controlists. We will find out what freedom is.
People are more worried about appearances and what others think about them than about being authentic and free. Textiles wear clothing to impress, not because it’s who they are. I stopped trying to fit in and look like everyone else: genes, t-shirts with some sports team’s logo, fashionable kicks, and no socks. I didn’t fit in with anyone trying to look like everyone. Being naked lets me fit in with anyone who wears the same because they don’t care about how I look, and if they’re naked, they don’t care about what I think anyway.
Nudism is freedom. I don’t have to wear clothes to succeed; I have to be aware and conscious about what’s happening and how I’m feeling. I have to be honest, inspirational, and respectful, and that’s all it takes to be successful. Naked, authentic, vulnerable, compassionate, empathetic, seeking and speaking truth as I know it. Connecting with and caring about the people in our community is the prize of being awake and aware.
Naked freedom.
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