I was thinking about our obsessive use of clothing and began to realize that I remembered how God pointed out to man about going out to cut a tree, take some parts of it to make a fire, get warm by it, cook his meal, etc, then take the other part to carve out an idol using man made tools, setting it up in a prominate place, then fall down to worship it. (Somewhere in the OT prophets)

I was thinking about the article Ecologically Sound as it starts out with "Someone once asked me why I go through so much trouble to go nude." The the article proceeds to tell how much trouble we go to be clothed.

One thing led the the next when I realized I was repeating the above observation by God when this thought came: We say that the clothes makes the man. There is a book out that explains that how we dress for success or failure makes the difference. I do agree with that thought when it comes to going out and decieving the world into believing you are better than you really are by showing off what you wear. You "look successful" even if you are not.

If the truth be told, clothes don't make the man, man makes the clothing, then we spend time to make sure it looks good on us, then we go out and say, "What a good person I am because my clothes makes so". We practically worship ourselves and ask others to do the same (intellectually speaking) because we dress the part of a king even though we are paupers.

Talk about impersonating an officer! We can delude our selves into believing we are the One when in reality, our clothing is our saviour. Our clothing makes us, helps us look successful, helps us to believe in ourselves, helps us to hide our real personality, helps us to decieve our neighbors, helps us to find a job, feel secure, fit in to society, hide our weapons, our scars, our flab. We find a boost of confidence we cannot find within ourselves simply by buying our confidence in bottles, lotions, clothing, shoes, power ties, or shirts that have sayings on them that we are afraid to say with our own mouths.

What got me on this thought in the first place was a Dr. Phil show I saw yesterday (Friday, 5/21) about a young lady, early twenties, who has been arrested "only four times" for embezzling thousands of dollars from various companies she has worked for to buy high end clothing she sees on Hollywood stars. She thought her selfworth was created by these clothes. She thought the world would respect her more, show off her success in life. She was shocked to find out that she had to take showers "naked" in jail in front of other women!!! Horror! Too bad Dr. Phil didn't tell her to join a naturist resort and stay there for a couple of weeks.

Even I have to wear a "uniform" or style of clothing that "fits my personality" when going out to sell signs. Fortunately, its just to sell signs, so I can live with that. Signs is only a way of making a financial living. I'll wear a suit with a "power tie" if that is what it takes. But don't suggest I wear clothing to make me a "better" person. God does that! I even cringe at the thought that I have to take pills for my ADHD to make my mind a better place to live in! I would much rather the holy spirit take my mind and make it a better place! And I still pray for that.

Is my frustration of having to wear clothing all the time have something to do with my ADHD? Is my mind rebelling against all forms of success because I feel I am forced to do something I not only find uncomfortable, but an attack on my personality and life?

When I am working nude, for some reason, I am feeling better, think better, have more energy, zeal, and find myself doing better work. I am not sure if it is psychological or reality. But when I am working nude, I am working longer, harder, finding more things to do, and better at it. Even if I am not doing "better" at something, I have the streagnth, zeal, emotional stability to go and fix it and do it again until it is right.

So do clothing make me? On the contrary, it's hides the real me, the Boyd that nobody gets to see, not even myself. I find that I actually hide from myself and what my purpose in life is. I become someone else. Like Clark Kent, pent up in not being who he really is, pretending he is a normal kid, holding back his powers (his gifts), so he can "fit in".

And then we say, "We are a free nation, a free people".

Boyd

Boyd, I can relate to your frustration about taking drugs. I too take welbrutrin for depression. I can't help but feel it is just a crutch, a way of dealing with the life I've chosen for myself. I feel that if I had enough faith, I wouldn't need the drugs. I've worked at a job, for thirty years ,that I have not enjoyed, but with a wife and four kids, it was easier to remain, in this job, then to change. Now at fifty-four I look back and feel like I wasted my life, because my feelings, for my job, affected my whole life. Having experienced, social nudity on just a few occasions, and having enjoyed the wonderful sense of freedom, I feel like I'm running out of time to enjoy it even more. And with a wife that is totally against it, I think you can see my dilema. It's affecting my marriage. I know that is not right, but I can't help it. We have nothing, except our kids and grand kids, in common. I know if we could share this experience, it would bring us closer together. I have prayed for a change of heart, hers or mine, but nothing has changed. Sorry for going on so long, but there is no one else I can talk to about this. Greg(formerly wannabefree)

I am sorry to hear about your situation. I see you decided to use your real name (assuming it is) and got away from "wannabe". Congratulations on your decision.

You may also want to visit http://www.amenclinic.com and take the online test. You may find it will narrow down your personal situation. I find that taking amino acid complex with an occasional L-Tyrosine helps a lot. But that is for my case, not necessarilly yours. Dr. Amens can direct you there.

As for your wife being totally against naturism, I'm not sure what she is personally against it about, but at least she should take enough interest in it to study it and find out why in the name of common sense your doing it!! After all, it is affecting your life and hers! Instead of just pushing it off and you too, she should at least dig in and try to save your life if that is what she thinks she is doing. So she may get mud on her, but that is what happens when you dig down to save someones life! Jesus got blood all over himself to save ours!

Keep the faith,

Boyd

Nudity for my wife means sex. I like to swim in our pool naked, my wife wears a suit. When she does go without it, its because shes in the mood, for more. She doesn't like it if I don't feel the same. She thinks anyone that feels like I do, about nudity, is wrong. She told me I should talk to our pastor, and I did. He didn't respond the way she had hoped. As far as my job situation, I had hoped to retire this july, but because of a change of homes, amongst other changes, that will be put off for at least three years. I know fifty-four isn't ancient, but I'm older then my dad was when he had his first bypass surgery. And the other day, a guy died of a heart attack on his way to work, he was fifty-four. It just makes one think.

In the case of your wife, or anyone reading this who is wondering about naturism, to assume nudity equals sex makes me wonder about the state of mind the person who is thinking this is in. I don't want to say anything negative about your wife, you might bop me in the nose, but it is a nationwide phenomenon to have that much sexual thoughts going on in their minds. You said that "if she is in the mood" she may go nude in the pool. Therefore, her problem with nudity is worse than the naturists.

If going nude is an aphrodesiac, then going nude would be the answer to those who are having problems sexually. I cannot immagine having sex on my mind all day everyday prepared for action all the time. I don't know of anyone who has that kind of stamina. I can be nude 24/7 and not be ready for sex. It just isn't natural to be that sexed up all the time. Physically impossible I would think.

Since the only time she would go nude is if they are ready for sex, then no wonder they think that going nude means sex. It's like a kid getting into a car to go to McDonalds. If the only time a child is allowed into a car is to go to McDonalds, then one day they get into the car to go to church, the child is freaked out because they didn't go to McDonalds. And the child thinks Dad goes to McDonalds everyday because he saw him get into the car and drive off to work.

Of course we know the above scenario is extremely unlikely but we are often trained that way. Some people don't understand how I can drink coffee without cream or sugar. Northerners don't understand how we in the south can eat grits with fried eggs and butter, and not like a cereal with milk.

One person can go to church and yell "Ha-le-luuuuuuuuu-yaaahhh!" and start dancing in the isles, and the conservative Baptist wonders if the devil got that person!

It's all in how we are raised into believing who and what we are. We cannot be dogmatic about our life styles as long as it does not conflict with the laws of God. Since there are no laws of God prohibiting nudity, then it cannot be a sin. It is only a sin if it comes between us and God and shows lack of concern for our neighbors. But again, we need to be careful and not allow a fear of it stop us from setting a good example of good nudity for our neighbors either. Our neighbors do not stop worshiping God their style for our sake. If I choose to believe that eating pork is a sin, then should my neighbors stop eating pork?

Note: I used to believe that eating pork is a sin based on old laws of the old covenant and legalism. That has changed. I still don't like the stuff and I think it's still bad for you, and I still haven't started eating sea spiders and don't plan to start. But if my wife wants to, she can eat all she wants. I can point out laws against those things, where there is none for nudity.

God did not saay that sex is bad or nudity is bad or drinking alcoholic drinks are bad. Eating food in excess (gluttony) getting drunk, sex outside of marriage is all sin. Being nude in God's image is not. Nor has God said that being nude and sexuality is the same thing. We dress up to look sexy, isn't that the same thing as sexuality? Think about it.

Boyd

I think the notion that sex = nudity is pervasuive when looking at the media's interpretation, at least in the movies. I also tend to think that our society, especially Christians, propogates this myth. You think about your typical guy walking down the street in America. They run into a nude person and either they are a pervert (a guy) or some sort of floosey looking for sex (a girl), neither of which may be true.