One day last year I was paddling solo down a beautiful creek in the Midwest. I was scouting a route for a class I would be bringing there the follow
ing week. I had started out in the early chill of the day, but by noon the sun was out and the air was hot. I was concentrating on soaking up the heat, the sound of my paddle in the water, the aesthetics of the trees hanging over the banks.
As I rounded a bend in the river, another canoe approached from behind about six feet off the port side. The person at the bow of the canoe, dressed in an old T-shirt and shorts, was happily paddling forward, completely oblivious to the person at the stern, who was dressed in ... well, nothing but a smile.
"Great day to get naked!" He shouted.
The other person laughed to himself, apparently thinking the guy behind him was joking.
"It sure is!" I called back.
The person at the bow began to sense there was something amiss. The poor guy looked over his shoulder to see that he was the only clothed person in his canoe. Apparently, a fifteen-foot vessel was not large enough for him to be sitting in front of a naked redneck in the middle of nowhere. He started paddling as though he could make his end of the canoe outrun the back end.
Every now and then I spy an article in an outdoor magazine that mentions, in brief, the interest people have in nude recreation. People have hiked the Appalachian Trail with nothing but their boots and socks on, rappelled wearing nothing but their harnesses and I've even heard of naked skydiving! It would surprise you some of the things people do naked, but who hasn't gone skinny dipping?
In broaching the subject of nude recreation, I hear people say, "Sorry, but there are some people I don't want to see naked." Come on now. How many of us really look like Leonardo DiCaprio in The Beach or Kate Bosworth in Blue Crush? Why should the
fun be relegated to the beautiful? Goddess or gremlin, we all need some sun. Some more than others.
Let me point out that in many areas, recreational or not, nudity is illegal. This is where the American Association for Nude Recreation comes in. I met some representatives of this organization two years ago at a convention in Denver, Colo. They were very cordial, professional, open and dedicated to making nude recreation socially acceptable. They candidly explained that the AANR works to ensure both freedom and access to nature in clothing-optional locations. To this end, they work through educational, professional and political means to promote the validity of nudity as a means of recreation.
In view of a potential fine and the potential reactions of those unexpectedly encountered, why do some people prefer their recreation sans apparel?
I've heard it referred to as a "baptism into nature." Our entire body is one big sensory organ. We never experience anything as much as when we throw our whole selves into it. The person who watches a DVD about Mt. Hood won't know the emotions of the person who climbs it. The person who walks beside Opal Creek won't know the exhilaration of the person who jumps in it. The person who hikes into the Grand Canyon won't feel the same intimacy as doing so without the inhibition of clothing
I think it's like being on a road trip and turning a corner to see the most spectacular view spread out in front of me. The first thing I do is roll down the window. Then I start looking for a place to pull over, leave the car and stare uninhibited at the beauty before me. Maybe it's also like looking into the face of someone I find truly beautiful, someone I truly want to know. I naturally want to reach out and touch them, to remove the inhibition of silence that separates use.
It's about removing inhibitions. The window glass between me and the view inhibits what I want to see clearly. The distance between you and that person inhibits what you want to hold. So the reaction is to stop and reach out. At this point I am reminded of how many beautiful opportunities we have every day, in the faces of the people we pass.
We allow too many inhibitions to keep us from reaching out and seeing each other clearly. It seems we are so tightly clothed and constricted by so many things that we maintain a glass of social indifference between us and the lives of others. I am not suggesting that we should all be required to walk around naked, but if we could simply stop and reach past our inhibitions once or twice, we'd find that the next person is just as human as we are. In truth, clothing doesn't make the man, because the human is underneath.
Skinny dippers unite!
If you are interested in getting naked or the American Association for Nude Recreation, see
http://www.aanr.com/ for more details.
Getting naked for the sake of some higher or noble purpose seems to be modern society's rather quirky response toward liberating today's new sexual mores and to bolster the moral consciousness of our so-called degenerate tribe(s) of humanity. It would be cool to actually participate , fo'sure!. But unfortunately, not many people are ready for prime time nudity where I live.
We've been trying to get a World Naked Bike Ride started here (Tokyo) and elsewhere in Asia, but it really doesn't seem to go over that well for a variety of reason. I notice too that even some major urban areas has some trouble this year. In some case, the authorities refused to allow 'full monty' nudity - although I didn't seem to stop the true nudist enthusiasts or believers in the cause of 'No more exposure' to automobile exhaust. It's clear that the United States is decidedly more 'conversative' that other areas of the world - Chicago, the 3rd largest city, held its WNBR at night. For one thing, there seems to be a deluge of political apathy. People don't seem to care about making a strong political statement by public protest. Perhaps they have seen the futility of such protests (esp. public ones) over the generations. Secondly, people do not like to take personal responsiblity for their actions and decisions. Getting naked (partly or fully) is certainly a personal decision -- although it might seem to suit the 'group' mentality that seems apparent in many Asian
countries. The fact is getting naked is very individual and very personal act. Finally, the sense of indignant indecency or an attitude of righteous morality that comes 
from doing something so brazen just does not have the same meaning in Asian countries. Nudity is just a fact of life. It does not make the same huge societal statement because nudity itself is not regarded as morally corrupt or wrong as it is in Christianity and otehr monotheistic religion-dominated cultures. The main reason I wanted to write about this was the thousands of great CMNM photos that appear during this season of the WNBR. Particularly appealing are the photos of naked men in the midst of clothed ones.
QCam
