Learning From the Old Ways

My people are known as the Lenni Lenape, which translates as the True People. This is how we thought of ourselves, since back then we knew of no one else and even after our People met other tribes along the east coast of what later became the North American Continent; even those tribes recognized the greater wisdom of our People and considered our name as accurate.

Part of what we always handed down from one generation to the next was to always be kind to all creatures. No matter what animal you confronted, even if your intent was to take that one back to make it a meal for your family, it was best to be kind to it beforehand. In other words, do not kill something out of cruelty, only necessity, for one who kills from cruelty deserves nothing less in return.

Something else that was passed along to each new generation, and this was not something that had to be told, for it was passed on through simply living, was to live as one was born, that is as simply and pure as the day each of us emerged from our mother's womb - naked - or nude if you prefer. We remained this way at all times, unless weather dictated otherwise, or necessity, such as entering brambles and bushes in search of prey when hunting. No one cares to have thorns scratch deep marks along the skin, drawing blood and possibly producing sickness if the thorns were poisonous, so animal hides often were adorned at such times.

But nudity was the accepted way of life and that is because clothing is a choice, while nude is simply being. There is no choice in nudity for nudity simply IS! Therefore if we were to draw upon the wisdom of our ancestors and live as they before the Europeans came to this land we would certainly cast off the constraints of wearing clothing, other than when weather or work demands we wear something, and live our lives as did the People, my People, the Lenni Lenape, free and open, caring not that everyone sees one another, for there is no shame in being who each of us is, as we are born being. Shame comes only through the deceit planted within our minds from childhood, from those who desire to enslave us and bring us under subjection to man's laws, thereby forcing us to live by man's fabricated laws, wearing fabricated skins, when we would all be much happier living by natural laws, living in our own skins alone.

I wear only my own skin as much as I am able, for this honors my ancestors and the Spirit we worship. The Sacred Breath lives within us and breathes through us when we live as we are born - free and pure. This is why I live this way, placing man's skins over my skin only when forced to do so in order to interact within man's society and not be arrested by man's laws.

With the most recent unrest in our society resulting in such great violence as it has, perhaps it would be better if society were to look back to these old ways and consider what they have to offer. Views on who our neighbors are, whether we are to live peacefully with those around us or seek to kill them simply for being different would vanish along with the outer garments that portray these differences if we sought after the old ways. Certainly it is clear that harboring prejudices against others of the same species as ourselves can never be good for any of us.

I myself am light-skinned, and like so many of this mixed-racial culture, my heritage is comprised of several ethnic backgrounds, but the one I identify most with is that of my Lenni Lenape ancestors. Why? Because they more than anyone seem to hold the answers to the discord that seeks to devour us. Still, I do not prefer that you look upon me and see me as “Native American,” or “European American,” or the portion that is in there from my paternal grandmother’s side that would make me “African American,” but that you see me as I prefer to be, a Naturist American. It is this more than anything that exemplifies my true inner being, that which displays who I am from the inside-out so that all may see the true me.

If you desire to live more simply, to be free of many mental illnesses, depression, anxiety, uncertainty, hatred, bigotry, and so many more illnesses of the mind that are brought on by modern society, try living in this manner, free and pure, without such constraints. Live as the Lenni Lenape before Europeans invaded this land and see how free your mind becomes. Put aside the outer skins and allow your natural skin to absorb the sunshine as necessary, to breathe in the Sacred Breath as our bodies were intended. Cleanse your bodies as you cleanse your minds and find that the world is not as you perhaps once perceived it, but far less conflicting as you see others in their natural state even as are you.