Naked & Unashamed
The Earth has made a complete revolution around the Sun since my last post, and coincidentally (or not) I was inspired today to break my long silence by offering this brief prayer.
Cover me
Clothe me
in your righteousness
until your clothing
becomes my skin
and like Adam
I am free
to walk naked
and unashamed
Wrote the following comment on May 25th, 2017 at 10:25 am #
Happy post-a-versary?
Wrote the following comment on May 25th, 2017 at 10:56 am #
Roger,
Good to hear from you, and thanks for reading.
I will try to get my next post posted before a year’s time.
-Anthony
Wrote the following comment on May 26th, 2017 at 8:46 pm #
Nice.
That says plenty… of nothing, doesn’t it?
I walk naked and unashamed, anyway.
Let’s delve further, shall we?
It’s interesting you should write this, because I’ve been giving this some thought lately.
Naked is good. Naked was never not good. Naked is still good.
So, I also gig you on the ashamed thing, anyway, because Adam didn’t say he was ashamed – he said he was afraid.
Naked and shame (I think) came from a personal sense of fear. It’s recorded that Adam said “I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
Why was he afraid?
There’s room for great conjecture, but that’s beside the point.
The point is, Adam said he was afraid because he was naked.
Nakedness in society is associated with shame, frequently with immorality (and in my estimation, wrongly so), and we often punish nudity (nakedness) in public.
Why?
Seriously.
Why?
What are we doing wrong (besides everything) that nudity or nakedness is somehow immoral or evil? We’re born naked, and often die naked. It’s recorded that Job said “I came naked from my mother’s womb, and I will be naked when I leave.” In 1993, I once heard a man say that nakedness was (a sign of) rebellion, but, I demur, and digress.
Seriously.
Watch a few corny YouTube prank videos in which young men and women jockey for a fight with strangers, and when the perpetrators pull down their pants to reveal their groin, who runs away? The would-be victims. It’s fascinating. see: https://youtu.be/k4oZvimEuVA
Why?
In some societies and cultures in other nations, it’s not uncommon for women to go bare-breasted. Certain African nations and cultures come to mind. And in yet others, women appearing in public bare-breasted is a sign of indignity, dishonor, and public shaming. Consider for example, the Ukrainian activist protest group FEMEN. Their public protests are almost always done in a bare-breasted manner, and their torsos are written upon as signage. And then, there are nude beaches and “nudist colonies” wherein males and females commingle in a condition of undress.
Sports such as the Olympic games were originally performed in a state of nudity. Gymnasiums were once locations where exercise was performed in a condition of nakedness. Today, there are sexually segregated saunas where patrons commingle, and there are – as I understand it – some where males & female commingle in a state of disrobe.
I’ve never seen a war fought in any of those locations. Ever. Nor have I ever read or heard of one being so waged in those locations. Ever.
So why the sense of shame? Why the fear? I simply think it preposterously absurd to be “Naked and Afraid.” Instead, be naked and bold.
The Almighty’s response to Adam’s statement was to meet his unstated need (to remove fear), which was to clothe him… because he said he was afraid because he was naked.
So, Heaven attempted to remove his fear by providing garments of skins to replace the garments of cellulose which he had configured for himself. And yet, fear remained. How many times is it stated that Heavenly visitors appear and their first words are “fear not”?
Granted, clothing has myriad functional purposes, yet my observations are not to address them. It is to establish dialogue and question why fear was not removed by clothing, and why shame is associated with nudity.
By the way… you have a lovely poetic voice.
Wrote the following comment on June 11th, 2017 at 5:05 pm #
Hmm… I don’t mind you walking naked, but when I’m there, can we all wear clothes please 🙂