The Naked Truth
Last year, I met up with a couple of old friends. Old,meaning I haven't seen them in a while. They are still fresh and young as a summer's breeze.
One of these friends is a girl who was a neighbor and a very good bud from my pre-teen years. We spent much of our childhood together. We ruled our neighborhood, our younger sisters, and all of their friends.
All the memories jumped right in my face upon seeing her again. We had a ball rehashing the loads of fun and trouble we used to cause. We looked quite innocent back in the day, but our behavior could be construed as a bit unruly.
We used to play hide-and-seek in the cornfields (Remember all the cornfields in St. Clair Beach).......but we had our own version.... striphide-and-seek.
We ran around those cornfields naked with our friends...boys and girls.... and. we. were. 10.
Oh the days of youth gone by.
In fact, most of the memories that we both shared (with much laughter) include nakedness. Her house backed to a main road. We used to dare each other to run from the back of her house to the fence ...naked. Then we would run around the entire house naked. Inappropriate, yet innocent fun.
So..there are many firsts in peoples lives. This friend and I also share a first. The very first time we saw a penis. Together. Get your minds out of the gutter. It wasn't like that. We were probably about 10 or 11, at our bus stop in the neighborhood. There was a boy who, at the time, was somewhat of a neighborhood bully. He told us that he wanted to show us his dick. He said "I'll show you mine if you show me yours." We agreed. And he did. He whipped that penis right out without any hesitation. We saw it. We screamed. We ran all the way home like we were being chased by killers. My friend's memory of that very first glance is that it looked like a huge python. Oh, how you know the owner of that penis would love to hear those words!
When we reconnected, this friend and I were sharing some personal stories about our lives today. She revealed herself as somewhat negligent in certain areas of responsibility. She gave me some examples with slight mortifiication. Can I just tell you how I found her lack of responsibility to be absolutely heartwarming?!
I'm so glad to know that she turned out to be who she is and always was. Someone who is wired like me... no matter how much we try to fight it.
When you grow up and are immersed in a world of shoulds and duties and surrounded by people who seem to have their shit so together all the time, it feels good to reconnect with a kindred spirit.... a free spirit.
It's not that I don't take my responsibilities seriously.......it's just that I tend to want to run away from it all.......I want to take it all off and run around a field naked.
I share these things because I know it's easy to lose sight of your true self. It gets buried underneath all the responsibility and grownupishness, the mass consciousness of society. Remember who you were at 10. Discover who you are now.
Fun, laughter, adventure, trouble..... that's who we were.... it turns out that's who we still are.... underneath it all.