The Naked Eye

When Naked is Simply Not Enough

Striving to be genuine in a chaotic world

I hope I might have the opportunity to explore this persistent and burning desire to live a genuine life centered on meaningful relationships with the people I most care about.

I am a husband

I am a father

I am a professor

I am an empath

I am a friend

I am a colleague

I am a naturist

I am a traveler

I am successful

I am confused

I met with a colleague yesterday to catch up with the state of the union on numerous tentacles that represent all the crazy in Academia in 2022. When we return to classes after the holidays, I will be a sexagenarian.

Look it up. That’s not as alluring as it may sound.

I was happy to be invited by Robert G. Longpré - [he/him] - Canadian métis to write for his new publication. Not only do we share a passion for naturism, but also a curiosity about what makes people who they are. What is each person thinking in the midst of their own pursuit of life, love, and happiness?

And truthfully, do we even know that about ourselves?

Amongst naturists, there is a common trope about nakedness stripping you of your every day identity. All the social cues we pick up by how one adorns themselves in clothing are removed from the equation. You can no longer tell a doctor from a policeman from a plumber from a homeless person.

I’ve always rejected this notion.

Even before a person speaks, they send all sorts of non-verbal cues as to one’s self-perceived identity.

And once we start speaking, all bets are off.

The younger version of me thought this was quite a lot simpler than it truly is.

But today, we as a people — at least here in the United States — have become increasingly aware of ethnicity, gender, reproductive rights, political identity, and all the rest. Many have made those things their raison d’être. Others have rejected that narrative, wholesale.

I found myself trying to explain the concept of micro-aggression to a friend a generation older than myself a few days ago. He cocked his head as I spoke, sort of like my dog does when waiting for a treat. He wasn’t familiar with the term, and once explained, was put off by the concept.

I, on the other hand, had encountered the term at least fifty times in the preceding week. Sometimes heard in a narrative about others; sometimes in the accusatory form, directed toward me.

Embrace the concept… or not.

It’s a thing that’s here to stay.

As I have amassed decades of existing on this planet, I find myself wondering how the current landscape appears to my Gen Z students. In the face of a warming planet, warring nations, and crumbling governments — including our own — have they simply given up on the dream of a better tomorrow?

There’s a sense that it’s every he, she, and they for themselves that I don’t remember from my young adulthood. And I can’t say I blame any of them. Even the illusion that society is looking out for your best interests has become the fodder of internet warfare. Corporate and institutional loyalty evaporated with the pension and healthcare plans those places once sponsored.

I guess that all sounds pretty bleak. I’m not sure if that’s the case.

I am confused.

But it occurs to me that the desire to be a genuinely compassionate and empathetic human being in this post-insurrection era has become increasingly challenging.

Genuinely what? Empathetic to whom?

Much of my writing here on MEDIUM is of a more light-hearted timbre. Reminiscing about travel or reliving a day on nude beach is always cathartic, salted with the anticipation of future endeavors.

I also am deeply intrigued by the concept of vulnerability as that is so deeply ingrained in my philosophy of being a teacher and musician. So, I write about that, too.

But on these pages of Life Through a Lens I hope I might have the opportunity to explore this persistent and burning desire to live a genuine life centered on meaningful relationships with the people I most care about.

To that end, this first entry feels awkward and unwieldy, acknowledging that one person’s genuine may well be seen by another person as micro-aggressive. (Can I even use that form of the term? Is that, in fact… genuine?)

This is the age in which we live. These are they dynamics of a world defined by social media memes and TikTok videos.

It’s a circuitous path. Naked or not. Literally or figuratively.

Thanks for coming along.

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