About once a month, I pose naked for a group of artists and let them study my body.

I have no problem with that other than some strain caused by trying to keep still for 20 minute sessions. I sort of zone out and meditate. Plus, I get a few bucks for my time.

For most people, however, being naked is a private affair only to be shared with intimates. I am very fond of artistic types but I couldn’t say that I am intimate with all these people. Even if I extended my intimate circle outward to include them, there are also those people who walk by the classroom when the door is open. There are those other students that come in and out on other business.

What I am doing is basically public nudity—I’m just getting away with it. (At least I haven’t been arrested for it, yet.)

It’s no secret that I enjoy being naked. I am pretty comfortable in my skin even with some extra weight on my middle aged body. This is not a normal attitude—at least not in the United States. I once told a coworker about my modeling. He was visibly freaked out at the concept. “That’s crazy!” he said.

He then commented that if he were to do that he would try to pick up on one of the hot young artists drawing him.

“Hey, you’ve already seen me naked…”

Somehow, I never thought that would be a good idea.

People have a bad habit to always associate nudity with sexuality. No doubt, it can be sexual. I am almost always naked when I have sex; I’m pragmatic that way. That said, if posing for art students got me off, being a dude, it would grow into a pretty awkward situation for everybody and I would not be asked to do it again.

For me, being naked is one of life’s simple and pure pleasures. When I am out in nature and think I can get away with it, I will strip and taste the sky with my body. I am not a fan of swimming in a chemical pool with soggy trunks but I will skinny dip in a lake or river. I absolutely refuse to go to any hot spring that requires “bathing suits.” That is just wrong.

If I am an outlier with my penchant for nudity, then I am going to come right out and say this:

Everyone else is crazy—not me.

Be honest. If you’re on a beach alone, on a beautiful day and you know no one is coming to interrupt you, you are probably going to get naked. Because, well, it feels awesome. (I mean, seriously, if you wouldn’t take off your clothes in that situation you must be dead.)

Everyone, is at the very least, a closet nudist. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying I want to see all those people at the grocery store naked. I am not against getting dressed (except in the morning), I can relate to why people are not comfortable in their skin. We can’t all compare favorably to Hollywood megastars who have personal trainers and plastic surgeons. No doubt clothes make most of us more presentable, Twain was right when he said: “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little influence in society.”

What I am against is the Puritanical notion that being naked is sinful. This notion that the body is dirty has been with us since the Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts. This never made any sense. There is something very wrong in the idea that God would consider the natural form of his beloved creation “sinful”. For me, the lesson people seem to take from the Garden of Eden story is perverted. If eating the fruit made Adam and Eve ashamed to be naked then maybe the way back to the Garden is to unlearn this “shame” and to become comfortable in our own skin again.

There is another form of nudity that is relevant to our time and that is the nakedness we feel when we are online. People are, apparently, unhappy with the way companies store our data. We might not like that Google keeps track of all those times we typed “BDSM” into their search window, and people really hope that their Facebook posts are kept within their circle of cool friends and not visible to their boss or—gasp—their mother.

Personally, I believe fighting for “privacy” online is a lost cause. It’s like walking into a shopping mall naked and expecting no one to see you. It’s a public space. Even our spy agencies can’t seem to keep anything secret anymore.

We are all naked.

There is another takeaway. Maybe we can learn something about taking ownership for who we really are rather than struggling to be so duplicitous. A more open world might be a more honest world. Maybe if people can’t feel secure in their own false fronts they will think twice about judging others for their individual tastes and preferences.

Though some people may be blander than others, almost all of us have some sort of “weirdness.” (I prefer “weird” people myself—birds of a feather I guess.)

I don’t like false fronts; most of the time I applaud when someone is “exposed” for who they really are. It makes my day when that politician who made a career railing against homosexuality gets caught trying to get some in the men’s room at the airport. I think shame and mistrust are bad ways to operate in the world. It is behind these masks that most of the great evil is done.

I tend to go the opposite direction. Being an artist, musician and writer it is part of my nature to express myself openly and honestly. I allow some of my “weirdness” to be seen.

For instance, I don’t wear shoes and I get judgmental stares for it all the time. I just don’t care. If my being barefoot upsets you that’s your problem—not mine. You could say I am a master at being “naked.”

There is a caveat however: nudity can be the cleverest disguise of all.

I grew up being picked on for being “weird.” Rather than crawling into a hole and dying, as some of the kids told me to do, I simply turned down that “what will other people think of me?” alarm to the point where I could barely hear it anymore.

In short, I stopped behaving like I was in high school; letting the trends of the most insecure people have any power over me.

I know not everyone leaves that high school mentality after they graduate. That’s why gossip columns continue to be so popular, but that doesn’t change my opinion that the world would be better off if people were able to leave their petty insecurities and judgments behind. Instead, we could become more genuine.

More naked.

Unafraid to be ourselves and reserving our judgments on how others are meant to be.

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Photo Credits: courtesy of author