LIFE WITHOUT SHAME
I was born with a cleft lip. If you’ve never seen pictures, let me just say it can get pretty ugly. Basically, it looked like a mugger took a knife to my mouth as I exited the womb. The doctors did their best to sew me up, but the scar remained. As a result of... Continue Reading →
Long before dreaming of nude beaches, when my afternoons were like a naked prisoner at home, I picked up the phone book and flipped to my favorite word in the English language. Well, my second favorite word, the first being naked. But since naked can mean just about anything, I searched under “nudist” and came... Continue Reading →
One good thing about being locked in my house, besides being naked all day, was having to find ways to entertain myself. There was no Facebook or PS3 or Cartoon Network in the 80s, only He-Man and GI*Joe and Transformers, and when those were over, I turned to my own imagination, to writing fiction. My... Continue Reading →
I would like to give a special thanks to Felicity Jones of Young Naturists America for originally posting this story on her blog! People talk about Obsessive Compulsive Disorder these days as if it were a joke. “Oh, I am so OCD!” you might say, when choosing what to wear or putting away the dishes.... Continue Reading →
This story originally appeared here: Young Naturists America, thanks to co-founders Felicity Jones and Jordan Blum, two of the most awesome people on the Internet! Please go visit their site! My father was born into poverty, having to sometimes go without shoes to school, and steal money for books. He immigrated to the United States... Continue Reading →
We need stories to humanize us, to help share our perspectives, because if it's one thing I know as a lifelong lover of words, there is no greater force for change than story. And this is mine, my memoir, in which I grow out of years of repression and low self-esteem into adulthood, confident and... Continue Reading →
Someday in the near future, no later than 2040, you will go to the beach and see more than a few people not wearing a bathing suit, or anything else for that matter. People will be able to get their mail in the buff, sunbathe their bare butts in their own backyard or skinny dip in their... Continue Reading →
Imagine you are a gay man or woman happily married to someone of the same sex. To celebrate your love, you post a vacation photo of you and your significant other kissing on the beach. None of your friends or family members object to the image because they have known you and your spouse for... Continue Reading →
Do you ever feel like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day? You know, when he wakes up every morning to that same song, "I've got you, babe . . .", because his entire life is a repeat of the same day? Last Thursday, I was in that Groundhog Day rut, and wanted to do something crazy, to carpe... Continue Reading →
What does it mean to be naked? Western civilization seems to understand the concept, and most people will agree that, regardless of personal belief, public nudity is not the status quo. But there is constant disagreement as to what constitutes nakedness, how to define a public place, and when or where and under what circumstances... Continue Reading →
