[at-l] Hiking Nekked Report

[shane at theplacewithnoname.com (Shane Steinkamp)]

> DUEN'T HIEK NEKKED NEA' DINGWALL LADZ
>
>
<http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/10/03/uk.rambler.naked/index.html>
>
> Court dresses down naked rambler

What isn't noted in the story is that Steve was held for several weeks in
prison, in solitary confinement, without bail, for no other crime than being
human.

For those following Steve, there is a new website:

http://cheef.com/nakedrambler.html

I really liked the piece below.

Shane

***

Christina Rees

Good morning. Enjoy this moment of relative cool, because, for most of us,
over the next few hours the temperature will be climbing again to make today
one of the hottest on record. The recent heat-wave has threatened the safety
of railway tracks, sent sales of paddling pools skyrocketing and has driven
any number of us to strip down to the barest minimum of clothing in a
desperate attempt to stay cool.

Good timing then, for Steve Gough, who?s discarded all his clothes as he
attempts to walk naked from Land?s End to John O?Groats. He?s not actually
trying to beat the heat, but to make a protest about nudity laws. The
homemade flag sticking out of his rucksack proclaims ?the freedom to be
yourself!? and he insists all he?s doing is ?showing my body the way God
made me.?

He?s right, of course, but that hasn?t stopped him from being arrested ten
times or from being beaten up in Cornwall. Putting aside the legal issues of
baring all in public, why does the sight of a naked man out on a harmless
hike, make some people turn to violence and others snigger or recoil.

Whatever you believe about how we came to be here on planet earth, here we
are, all of us, bodies as well as hearts and souls and minds. Our physical
nature is basic to and part of what we are as human beings, and is one of
the things we all share in common, whether we are at home inside our
particular skin or whether we find it painful or distasteful to relate to.

There is something disturbing and distorted about our society?s implicit and
explicit messages about our unadorned bodies. We have turned them into
?objects of shame, subjects of violence or icons of lust?. We drive them too
hard until they break down, or we neglect them until they malfunction. We
feed them inappropriate food and overload them with poisons. We sneer and
gloat and peek and violate. We glut them with all types of excess and punish
and harm them for all sorts of reasons.

What we can?t do, it seems, is accept our bodies as precious, the only means
by which we engage with other people, the rest of creation, all of life. As
a Christian I believe that God?s Spirit is present in our bodies, whatever
our size or shape, or condition. That should affect how I see myself and
others. Maybe if we were more comfortable with our own nakedness, we might
see beyond the bits that make us laugh or offend us and start seeing
ourselves as worthy of respect, holy; crowned, as the Psalmist says, ?with
glory and honour?.