The Naked Canvasser and Nude Community

I was out in the neighborhood a couple of weeks ago, inviting folks to a transition town meeting at the neighborhood park.

The Transition Town Movement began in England a few years ago. It has to do with permaculture and peak oil. You can find lots of info on the web, and I think you should.

Basically it was knock-knock, "Hi I'm Tom. I live over on Thirty-Fourth Street. Some neighbors and I are hosting a get together Saturday. I'd like it if you could drop by for a cup of coffee," then on to the next house. Around the corner from me, there's a block that has three Mother-in-law houses. MIL houses are tiny slab-on-grade houses, one story, usually just a combination kitchen-parlor, a bedroom and a cramped bathroom. These houses are at the backs of their lots, behind a normally sized house. Their name explains their function. One of these houses had lost its main house sometime, and I thought the huge lawn would make a great micro-farm, as I hiked back to the house. I was about to knock, when I got a glimpse of a naked man, cooking, through the light in the door. I left, thinking it was ironic.

Certainly I had no moral objection; I wouldn't feel superior in having caught somebody in an activity that I have enjoyed, and one I wish was more widespread. Ultimately, if we survive, I think canvassers will speak casually with naked prospects. Maybe there will be naked canvassers (brave souls). This time, though, I didn't want to scare anybody.

Fast forward to yesterday -- another transition meeting, citywide this time. A Portland architect named Mark Lakeman was the keynote speaker. He's associated with something called "city repair," and had a great presentation, about public meeting spaces, the US's lack of same, and efforts in Portland to build many more. He mentioned Portland's celebration of the World Naked Bike Ride, the fact of hundreds of naked people outside in a major city, and the police force's approval because it was an easy gig. I had seen Mark's presentation a couple of months ago, and that time, he talked about neighbors saunaing after completing a project, because "after all that you want to get naked with your friends." The time he used the sauna remark, it was with a small group, so he didn't get much reaction, but Saturday, in front of two or three hundred, he got unabashed applause from an audience whose ages ranged from twenty to seventy. (Also adamantly progressive conservationists, and feminists.)

The way to wider acceptance of social nudity probably depends on a certain amount of judicious lawbreaking, but the thing that will really make it happen is building a community that can include it.