Unless you’ve been living in a cave that is too far out to receive the newspaper, internet, smart phone reception, or a television, you’ve heard about the situation regarding Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman in Florida in which 17-year old Trayvon was shot by Neighborhood Watchman George Zimmerman. I won’t get in to all the details of the case- I’m neither Yahoo News nor Wikipedia.

Since Trayvon’s death, hoodies have been worn all over to make a statement about the unfairness of Trayvon’s death. I’ve seen a friend wearing a hoodie as she addresses her church congregation, senators wearing a hoodie during a legislative session, demonstrations of individuals who are all wearing hoodies, and a congressman kicked off the house floor while wearing a hoodie. Clearly, hoodies are a symbol of the prejudice that is felt in this case. It is said that the hoodie was used to indicate that Trayvon was a young Black man. I’m not completely in agreement with that assumption since I’m a 36 year old White woman wearing a hoodie right now, my 64-year-old mother wears a hoodie now and again, and all of the Nude U students who lead the AANR-East Youth Camp- who happen to be White right now- don hoodies on cold New York nights at camp.

Regardless, the hoodie has been identified as an article of clothing that causes people to have prejudice. As a nudist, I do agree that clothes are an obvious way to create opinions about people- opinions that aren’t always accurate. If a hoodie is a sign that the person wearing it is a young Black man (again, I don’t really agree with that statement), then we need to consider what other articles of clothing indicate: an expensive shirt and tie are indicators of a rich and important person, leather clothing means the person wearing them is a bad biker-dude, ripped jeans indicate poverty or youth, tighter clothing indicates that a person is promiscuous, and the list goes on.

What you see a person wearing truly does impact your thoughts on that person and we all know that these perceptions aren’t always accurate. This is one reason why nudism is seen as the great equalizer: if you’re nude, there are no clothes to indicate your “status.” Within nudism, we have to look much further to figure out what kind of person we’re talking to. This really is a good thing because the way to look further is to talk with the person. Through talking, we learn about the person’s heart- and isn’t that what people should really be judged on? I think so. Forget their fashion sense (or lack thereof, as in my case); what are they passionate about? What is their view on life? What are their hobbies? Yes, this is what a person is. We are not our clothes and some of us are thankful for that.

Little Orphan Annie sings about how “you’re never fully dressed without a smile.” I tend to go further: you’re only fully dressed when wearing nothing but a smile. And you’re also less likely to be judged on irrelavent things like what your clothes might “mean.” Perhaps this is not what I should be getting out of the Trayvon Martin case, but what I realize even more than before is that if we were all nude all the time, we’d have less prejudice and violence in the world (think about it: you can’t hide a gun on you if you have no clothes to hide it in!) I’m all for trying this theory out- especially in Florida, where Trayvon lived, since that is a nice warm state to be nude in!

What does it mean to be a Woman in Nude Recreation? I hear about this group of individuals but don’t really understand what it means. I suppose the group was created to encourage more women to participate in Nude Recreation. OK, good idea!

More women in Nude Recreation would be awesome. It’s good to see other women at our parks and our womanly ways add to any group. But, more importantly, women need to experience nudism. I read an article recently about how many women won’t go to the gym due to feeling uncomfortable changing in the locker room. Within my job, I hear constantly of kids failing gym because they refuse to change in the locker room. As an aunt, I hear my young nieces talking about their bodies- never positively, of course. We’ve all heard of crazy spending on liposuction, plastic surgery, and the like- sometimes on men, but most often on women. Clearly, there are some major body acceptance issues going on that need to be addressed in Womandom.

How are we going to get women to see that Nude Recreation is an option? Not only is it an option, it’s a fantastic option because of the acceptance, love, support, friendship, and encouragement that are found within the nudist community. I personally spent an awful lot of money between childhood and approaching age 30 paying therapists to fix me. It didn’t work. Do you want to know what worked? You probably already guessed: nudism. That’s not to say that therapy isn’t helpful or necessary for some, but my reality was that the nudist environment, in which I was wanted, appreciated, and loved for who I am, was all I needed to overcome years and years of depression. It was miraculous, really, and I wish that I had become a nudist loooong ago.

I became a nudist out of shear desperation: it was my last attempt to make my life livable before calling it quits. Little did I know that life being livable was just the beginning on the road to a glorious life! How do we get other women, who maybe aren’t at that level but definitely could grow more joyful as a result of nudism, to try it out? I don’t have the answer, sadly, but I’m going to try to figure it out. Any ideas???

Spring is my season of hope.  It is the season that sees my nudist camp open- which is always good.  With the opening, my friends return to my backyard, BBQs become plentiful, outdoor work can begin, skinny-dipping becomes a daily experience, and long walks in beautiful surroundings bathed in the sun alone become my norm.  Yes, spring is good.

As someone who has always lived in the Northeast, either in NY or PA, I’ve always wondered what it’s like to live somewhere that is always warm.  Do people in California, for instance, appreciate the spring the way I do?  Without the snow, do you really appreciate the heat?  Or is it even better to be somewhere in which you don’t have to long for the warm months for half the year?  I don’t know which is better but I’m sure it boils down to personal preference.  For me, I’m just glad that spring weather is upon us and our actual first day of spring is a mere hours away!

We all know that pictures are an opportunity to capture a snapshot of our happiest moments to treasure forever.  Like many of you, many of my happiest times are during nudist events.  You know, the ones in which we aren’t allowed to take pictures.  This saddens me and I truly wish that society would recover from their “oh my gosh- someone is naked!” mentality to see that nude is natural, free, and accepting.   Nude is hope, love, life, and joy.  But, no, too often nude is considered a crime.

I can understand why people don’t want their pictures taken at nude events.  In this internet age, one never knows where that photo will end up.  Facebook?  Mom’s email?  Employer’s email?  Really, I get it.  Yet…. I don’t.  If someone is at the nudist location with you, it stands to reason that they understand who not to send the photo to  because they likely don’t want photos sent of themselves to those same people.

Yet we continue to have our photo policies in place.  Again, I understand this.  But are we taking it too far by taking away cell phones that are within view simply because cell phones typically have a camera in them now?  I think so.  The reason that I think this is too far is that it will deter so many young people from coming out to our events.  I work with teenagers as my employment and every single one of them has a smartphone attached to their hip at all times.  This is the norm now.  If you take those cell phones from them or refuse to allow them to use the cell phones, you’re basically telling the teens that they aren’t welcome in the nudist environment.   Not good.

So… pictures.  Cameras.  Cell phones.  What’s your take?

Life at home is pretty busy, too. Camp closed (or “became clothed for the season,” if you will…) recently and I’m learning that shutting down camp is really a lot of work. I’m not doing most of the work, but what I have done has taken lots of time and love. And, of course, there is grieving for the loss of my friends, pool, hot tub, and nude-friendly weather.

Beyond that, AANR-East has kept me busy. This is an organization that I truly LOVE and which I’m so, so grateful for. As some of you know, I’m on the Board of Directors of this fine organization. What that means to me is that it is my job to work for each and every member in our region. We meet twice per year for meetings but that is the minor part of what we do. I also work on several committees to benefit those in our region. One committee that’s new to me is the Public Relations Committee. I’m still getting my feet wet on that one as I realize what we do and see how I can help. The Website Committee that I serve on is very active, having numerous calls and emails to communicate about upcoming changes to make the site easier to navigate and more user-friendly. The historical committee has also become increasingly active and I’m spending lots of time collecting information from the pioneers of nudism- what fun!

Then there’s the eNewsletter. Back in December or so I found out that we have an eNewsletter and, being a person who loves to write, I asked my dear friend Gloria if I could submit an article. Dumb question- this is a volunteer-run organization and any article I wrote was one less that Gloria was responsible for. Lol As I was writing and loving every minute of expressing my nude view, I joked with her that this was so much fun that I was going to hijack the eNewsletter. Little did I know that as of September of this year I’d be named the new Editor of the eNewsletter. I guess the joke is on me. Still, I love this work and am so thankful to be a part of such an awesome project. Next month, being the third anniversary of the eNewsletter being in print, we are making some major changes to it that I’m really excited about. This will be great but, honestly, it’s a LOT of work. Fun work, but work nonetheless. If any of you are interested in subscribing to see the great work we are doing, pop on to www.aanr-east.com and click on Speaking Naturally Newsletter to sign up!

So, yeah- I’ve been busy. Fun busy, important busy, but definitely busy. This weekend, though, I’m calling a time out because the world around me is simply too beautiful for me to work yet another weekend. Yes, this weekend I shall walk the dog around my beautiful grounds. This weekend I shall sit by the pond and reflect on the changing seasons and how my life has changed for the positive within the past few years. Ahhhh…. Now that’ll be nice!