Today I started reading a novel about a young woman who is a
student at a college in California. She is a sophomore who was caught cheating
on a paper she had turned in, having simply copied the paper someone else had written
and made a few changes to it, but been caught. I won’t go into all the details
of what happened, but she was suspended for the rest of the semester and lost
her scholarships. Something that was important to her. But all of that isn’t the
purpose for what I’m writing about. What happened next is.
In order to continue with college for that semester this girl is given
an opportunity that is unique to say the least. She has to participate in a
research study one of the female professors is conducting, something which requires
this student to finish up the semester, two more months, going about her daily
routine of classes, all completely nude. At no time during that two month
period is she ever to wear a single item of clothing. Not a stitch. Nada. If
she does the contract is null and void and she is back where she started on her
suspension.
To say the least the girl is terrified, but she agrees. Hey, what
would you do? Tell your parents you cheated and got kicked out of school or
spend 60 days walking around campus in the buff? It isn’t easy, but she agrees
to the terms and heads off to her first class, bare butt nekkid and scared
stiff. But something happens within her thought process during that first day,
and this is the reason why I am writing this today, because she finally got her
thinking screwed around to where she decided she isn’t being forced to
be nude, she gets to be nude. Think about that for a minute and consider
the clarity of thinking that must take as well as the beauty of that thought. I
get to be nude. I am going to walk through the doors of this building to
the outside world where everyone can see me and I GET to be NUDE!
Wow, that is an amazing bit of clarity.
I read that piece of thought in that book, of course it wasn’t
stated the way I just wrote it, but the meaning was there just the same, and I
sat there thinking that over. I envied that girl. Oh how terribly I
envied that girl, even though it was only fiction. To consider the rare and wondrous
gift she had been handed and she was not even aware of it. There are hundreds
of thousands of nudists in America alone who would give nearly anything to be
handed a gift that precious, to be told, “From this moment forward, for the
rest of your life you may go anywhere you please, no matter where it is, anywhere
in the world, completely as nude as the day you were born, and no one will stop
you. You will not be arrested, you will not be turned away, you will simply be
treated like anyone and everyone around you who is wearing clothing.” Period.
These nudists, like me, would die happy if they could be the receiver of such a
gift as that.
In one of the nudists groups on Facebook the other day someone
asked the question, “If you went somewhere nude and found you were the only
person there who was nude, would you stay there?” My response was, “If I knew
it was legal and all right for me to be there nude, sure. Why not?” Exactly as
with the girl in this story who was the only one walking around campus nude, if
I had the opportunity to leave my house and go anywhere and everywhere I wanted
nude, even if I was the ONLY nude person everywhere I went, I would still be
nude. Why? Because nude is who I am, who every one of us is. Clothing is a
disguise each person chooses to put on each day. I choose simply to be me. That
is all I ever want to be. Just me.
If anyone knows how I can achieve this gift that this girl in this
book was given, please let me know. I will embrace that gift greedily and never
release it to my dying day. Why? Because I GET to be nude. I GET
to always be ME.
Let’s all take that thought to heart if and when we get the chance
and remember how special a thing it really is when it comes to us.
Title and author of novel, please. Sounds interesting.
ReplyDeleteI wondered if anyone would ask that question. The book is The Volunteer and can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/Volunteer-D-H-Jonathan-ebook/dp/B01HAM329Q/ref=cm_rdp_product
DeleteI hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
I once "got to be nude". I had posted an ad that I was looking for an art modeling job. I said that I was new, thinking that it might help. One day a man called up and said he was looking for a model for his group. Would I come for an interview? Since it was easy to get to, I made an appointment with him. He had a workshop for camera repair in the center of Jerusalem. I went in and we talked a bit. He told me a joke as I recall, but I was not amused. Then he asked me to undress. I said that I would have no problem undressing in front of a group of artists. To myself I added that this was not the place. He then shouted at me: "If you can't undress here with just the two of us, how will you manage with a mixed group?" Shouting has this effect on me, though, and I undressed, leaving only my socks. His tone changed to one of admiration and envy. "I would never have the courage to do that", he said. I dressed and left, expecting a call. When ten days passed I became suspicious and phoned him. He apologized and said that the group disbanded.
ReplyDeleteI began to think that the group was a figment of his imagination, but that I had left the meeting with him feeling empowered, not embarrassed or exploited. I eventually did get some art modeling work, and again, it was empowering to be nude and the center of attention.
Sorry you went through that. There are abusers out there of course. I went to art school in NYC back in 1977 and was also a nude model for art classes at times. Why not? Easy work for the money, right?
DeleteVery interesting read. Thanks
ReplyDelete