Written by [Originally posted on my personal blog (http://mojoreisen.com/blog/?p=1866) on December 30, 2016]
Today is December 30, 2016, the penultimate day of the year, a day I review and contemplate the events of the year and, hopefully, set goals and intentions for the coming year.
It was another year in which I didn’t actively participate in social nudity. While I would have liked to have visited nearby venues or traveled northeast to hike Chautauqua Gorge, other things came up or the effort and expense didn’t seem worthwhile. Essentially, other things in my life took priority over getting naked with strangers. Will that change in 2017? I won’t even try to make a prediction. I suspect that getting naked with others will likely remain a low priority.
This year my financial situation changed drastically and I began reevaluating my memberships and subscriptions. Among the memberships that fell under the magnifying glass were my AANR and TNS memberships. Although I appreciate the work they do for nudism and naturism in general, I had to evaluate them from a more personal level. Was continued membership worth $50 to $60 each on the off chance that I might find my way to Cedar Trails, Paradise Gardens, or Sunshower Country Club for a day of social nudity? This year, I decided they didn’t. Maybe next year, I might chose one or the other.
In October I learned of the existence of a non-landed club, Dayton Warm Breezes, that’s practically in my back yard. I’ve made contact with them but, thus far, I have not been able to attend one of their events. The October swim would have been an ideal opportunity but it was canceled due to problems with the pool. The November and December events at member homes conflicted with other engagements. Their next swim is scheduled for mid-January. Maybe I can make it to that. In the meantime, my interest in joining fluctuates from one day to another. Getting naked with others, as much as I miss it, isn’t really a high priority these days.
Over the year, my ideas and attitudes about nudism and naturism have evolved. Actually, they’ve been evolving for several years but this year I really began to give it more thought and write more about it as can be seen in several of this year’s posts. Rather than reiterate them here, you can go back through the posts and read them yourselves.
One change I made to my blog was to only allow comments for the first 30 days after an article has been posted. It resulted in a significant reduction of spam comments. I might miss some legitimate comments but I figured that if no one commented within the first 30 days, I wasn’t likely to get any.
What does it look like for getting naked in 2017? To tell the truth, I haven’t a clue. I’ll continue to be nude when I can and I’ll continue to promote nudity as our natural state and advocate the legalization and decriminalization of simple nudity.
I still see the need for less anonymity and secrecy among nudists within nudist groups and in social media. As nudists and naturists, we proclaim that the unclothed human body is natural and decent and that being naked is not shameful, yet we insist on anonymity and secrecy in pursuing our clothes-free lifestyle or activities. People are naturally suspicious of any activity surrounded by anonymity and secrecy.
I think it’s about time we learned to live with the ever-present technology that nearly all us possess, namely mobile phones. Personal privacy has become a very rare and precious commodity. That’s a reality and we have to learn to deal with it. Banning mobile phones or any other device that might have a camera at nudist events and venues seems short-sighted and, ultimately, not very practical. Pictorially documenting my naturist activities as I would equivalent activities in a clothed environment shouldn’t be difficult or even impossible. Shouldn’t we have more trust, respect, and accountability among ourselves?
Sorry for getting up on my soapbox but those are but a couple of my frustrations with the current nudist paradigms.
