mark e

For the most part, I'm an easy-going guy. I like to laugh and don't take myself too seriously. I'm intelligent, sensitive, grounded, and sincere. I make beautiful and useful things out of wood. Free time is infinitely more important to me than a lavish lifestyle. I like to listen, observe, ask questions. I'm 41, frequently mistaken for 32. I'm generally a vegan, consistently a life-long learner, and oftentimes a walking contradiction. I'm better one-on-one than I am in a group. I like to meet good people but I “recharge my batteries” by being alone. I don't need a lot of entertainment to keep me happy. I get enjoyment and fulfillment from the simple things: tasty food, nice music, self-directed learning, good conversation, a nap, a laugh, a good book or movie, drawing, taking photographs, a bike ride, an evening walk, the chance to playfully explore some new place.I'm naked a lot. Most days I can't wait to get out of my clothes when I get home or, at the very least, when I go to sleep.This thing of coming to accept my body as it is; of being out in nature feeling the sunshine, the breeze, the waves and water currents unencumbered on my skin; and of sharing those experiences with other people has brought me much joy and comfort.Seeing that we all exist in bodies, I'm a bit befuddled how embarrassed, afraid, and disdainful we tend to be of our natural bodies in this society. What are we all so afraid of? Surely it is a sign of imbalance and unhealthiness to be so socially antagonistic and averse concerning something we all possess in common?As such, I've become a bit of an advocate for normalizing simple nudity; of rebelling against the damn marketers, moralists, and media makers who communicate to us a thousand time a day that the body is either to be hidden, to be feared, to be sexualized, or to be manipulated to get someone's attention long enough to sell them something. I'm sick that most of the bodies we encounter on the regular are either completely fake (photoshop) or else belong to the impossibly-beautiful. I love beauty as much as anybody, but resist the idea that the beautiful are the only ones with license to feel comfortable in their skin, to be seen; the only ones who get a pass.My experience being a totally average person naked with and around other totally average naked people in a non-sexual social context (such as at a nude beach, a hot springs, a clothing-optional resort, a national forest, an activist bike ride, an art event, or in the homes of people who are simply unconcerned and comfortable in their own skin) has been overwhelmingly positive. In these contexts I've experienced giddiness, increased confidence, healing from body shame, and a reprieve from the staunch religious instruction of my childhood, which had me more twisted and fixated than healthy.Put simply, I have come to experience nudity as both leisure and medicine.