on letting it all hang out

My housemate's friends have been getting bent out of shape, she tells me, because of the fact that her boyfriend has seen her naked. Which leads me to a couple of conclusions:

1) She's in a long-term, monogomous relationship with someone who really cares about her
2) She's 23 years old. And sometimes when two people love each other very much ...
3) Her friends are horribly conservative. Or ugly. Or both.

You know what I really like? I like when you go to the beach in the summer, and you've got all those little kids (and I mean little - like when they're still in the wobbly stage), running around wearing nothing but a bonnet. They're running along the shore, they're digging for worms, they're showing their god-given goods to the world. And I like that there's something about that which hasn't managed to be corrupted. Like no matter how hard we try keep everything sterile and covered up, kids are still going to run around naked and eat dirt. I hope that we can remember to stay young, in some small way. Remember that there's something really organic about the body. You know what else I like? New mom's who have the confidence to breast feed in public. I will never get over how incredibly beautiful and organic it is. And no matter how many men tell them to go behind closed doors, or how many people stare blankly ... I mean, she's feeding her baby! I've seen a lot more disgusting things take place in the Toronto subway.

Back to the point. I'm not saying that nudity is something that I want to engage in on a public scale, but if you're sharing it with someone, it can be very intimate, very sweet and very loving. OR - if you're like my housemates and I last year who would walk into each other's rooms wearing next to nothing, or change in front of the living room window ... well, you just don't give a damn. And that can be fun too.