"Being Naked is Political"- Naked Jen

What is it we are trying to learn from nude blogging? Where are we going? What is it that ultimately, in the long run, that we bloggers wish to communicate to our readers? This is a good but challenging question that I posed to another nudist blogger known simply as Naked Jen. Here is her response:

being naked is political. so if you're going to do it, do it for the right reasons.

not to offend someone else.
not to get attention or to be provocative.
not out of shame.

do it to celebrate your beautiful body.

It isn't about shock. It's actually about awe! It's about the wonder that is our body, that it is unique and ours alone. And that is should be celebrated and not always covered.

Being naked is political. Just think about that for a second. Being naked is not only a fashion statement, it is a political statement! When we think we are being plainly ourselves, when we are bared to the world, not covered up, when we are at our most vulnerable, most alive, most sane, most omniscient, wonderful, incredible, viable, potent, flexible, and unimaginably free, that is when we are seen as a statement to the world. That is when we are seen as defending or threatening the world as it stands, because we are as the spring flowers, new, beautiful, and strange, always awaiting interpretation, and always redifining beauty and truth with the shifting of our bodies, and our selves. We define as we go, without realizing it, without seeing that we are a part of that whole, an integral little niche filler in the big grand eco-sphere of existence.

Nothing is anything less than sacred. Hidden well below our vision, in our day to day activities, each and every little one of them, is the possibility for transformation. We transform ourselves as we view others, bare ourselves to others, and step simply out of our own dark shadow into the light of day. When the secrets of self transformation are all known then we are enlightened. We are naked to ourselves, and we shine light onto the world. The power of nudity is incredible. It is amaqing to realize that this power extends into the realm of politics. In this realm, we too have an incredible voice, waiting to be heard.

You can visit her amazingly inspirational Nudist blog. Thank you Naked Jen for your beautiful and wise words!

Come ALIVE and into the light Naked Sun Worshipers!

What is it? Where is it that we go to cover up (in every sense of the word)? There must be a singular spot, a one location, a hot spot, a central hub, where all the hidings hang out. This place where all truth goes to be concealed, where all nudity goes to keep from being revealed, this place where we can lay all our fears to rest.. we can let any worries we have about being exposed all fall away into the deep deep darkness of unexposure.. of blank film in the can.. of blank movie theatre screens in the early am, before anything is ever shown. How deep, how deep does this place go? How far will we let ourselves fall into this sweet deep numb blind false temporary comfort?

Like the cycle of night and day our mind must go into the light as well as into the dark. We use the dark to rest our weary minds, we use the light to show our wonderful selves. For the mind to rest in the night, the dark is a good thing... but for the mind (or the body) to stay for a lifetime huddled in this chilly lonely massless dark is a simple failure of the mind to come alive.

Come alive! Come ALIVE in spirit and mind and body!!! Each second, each precious mental step, each physical breath is the gift of this world. Life as we know it. Microcosm. Gifts from the drops of rain on your window are the clarity of mind that is needed. Shafts of light from the sun strong up the mental foundation of everyday happiness. Nature bares herself in the nude each day for us. She is not huddled in the dark, but embraces and thrives on the light. We are born of the light. We are by nature sun worshippers. We thrive on the sun as nature does, we grow from golden rays, from cloudless days, from all the ways that light finds us!

They Whisper by Robert Olen Butler- Cravings and Powerful Desires

Wow, the border feels as if it is almost in sight! We leave today from Elk Lake Resort outside of Bend. This next bit is a long push up to Timberline lodge, 150 miles away. Then it is only a couple days to the Columbia River from there!

Have been reading They Whisper by Robert Olen Butler. Wow. I would love to hear thoughts on this book if anyone out there reads this one! It seems quite deep, complicated, and powerful! It taps deeply into the issues of writing, life, love, and more?

I have almost finished the book, about five pages left. I am wondering what it will ultimately say about these things.. but I wonder what I would think of them as well, this book having come this far, and brought them so thoroughly to the surface, already a remarkable achievement. The book already has shown, more clearly than I have seen anywhere else, what love is and what love is not. Wow! The words take us quite clearly, on a well defined path, from point A to point B, again and again, showing us what life is with love, and what it is whithout it. This is amazingly clear. The writing is very poetic, in the sense that you feel very strongly when you read it that you are expereincing a deeply felt life, a strong character connection. Then, as you put the book down, and try to tell someone about what you read, it feels slippery, like you can't hold onto the expereince, can't quite describe exactly what it was you were experiencing. It feels very intimate because of this. Like poetry and mediation, and now literature, you feel as if you are the only one experiencing this moment, and no one else can really know whats going on for you at the moment.

How do we share the feeling that we cannot share? Perhaps this is the most innate, deep, and wonderful sense of ourselves. I get the sense that we are, as the saying goes, all unique, just like everyone else. But there is much more than this here. It goes into the nature of religious expereince. It mentions catholocism, buddhism, and just plain expereince of nature as all ways of dealing with the world. It is hard to determine at this point exactly what the writing is arguing for. The overdone sensuality is certainly there to bring the issues of the flesh to the surface, but does it do more than merely bring the issue up? Does it argue for a certain conviction, a certain way of seeing things?

From a Buddhist perspective, is the main character too attached to these women? Too attached to his own craving or desire? He certainly identifies very heavily with his desire. That is his religion. Or is it truth that is his religion? Is his own personal truth simply that he loves women, that is what drives him, gives him life, fills out his senses, draws him closer to his own personal sense of God? Or, alternately, is he in his own personal hell? I don't really think so.... except, when he is denied enjoyment of the pleasures of women. Then, he is in his own personalized hell. This is the tricky grey area of religion and of life. In the Buddhist tradition, it is the challenge of the rose. To enjoy the beauty of the flower, but not to be cut by the thorns. To not grasp the thorny stem too tightly, to not hang on. To be able to let go is divine.

Writing itself is incredible. Life is incredible, and this is certainly a great boook to read!