Anxious in August!

Anxiety?

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always had fond memories of not only the summer season of every year but especially of the month of August. The summers have appealed not only to me personally to me but also to my identical twin brother, Alex. As identical siblings, one reason for this pleasure from the season is the fact that we are both practicing and proponents of our nakedness and of the preference we both have with the camaraderie and fellowship among those who enjoy social nudity (body acceptance and clothes freedom in the company of others).

We’ve both engaged in being nude together and with others for as long as we can recall. According to our older siblings (all brothers), Alex and I have been this way our entire lives – even before we were aware that some judged nudity as “not nice!” One of the realities of our double (twin) special lifestyle is the fact that as our parents were trying to teach us how to put on our clothes, we were both busy and focused on how to remove them!

We both enjoyed being comfortable! Our particular comfort level was best determined by our freedom, our liberation, from the confines of clothing! This enabled the both of us to truly be ourselves and – at least, conceptually, in control of our independence from the restrictions of having to conceal – our bodies!

Literary twins!

Our nakedness was, primarily, respected within our family and household. At home, Alex and I, as the twins, shared a bedroom. When within our shared space, we were allowed to be completely bare. Our parents and our six brothers (no sisters) understood this and there was no condemnation or judgment when they entered our bedroom and found us nude. When at home and outside of our four walls, Alex and I knew the policy was that we had to wear clothes. A family compromise that granted all of us some minimal degree of content and happiness.

This situation at home was fine but for one aspect. The both of us were born Deaf. Once our education level reached beyond the primary grade levels, we attended residential schools offered for the Deaf and hard-of-hearing. This entailed us living on a campus setting without the privacy of a room where our nudity would be permitted. The privacy factor was not an issue for either one of us. The clothing issue was the problem. Another negative aspect was that our school was at least a three-hour commute from our family home. Not very conducive for frequent visitations!

Naked shame!

Neither Alex nor myself experienced any feelings of guilt or shame concerning our nakedness and our preference for nudity. We were comfortable being ourselves no matter if those around us were clothed or not. As our oldest brother had commented numerous times: we had no modesty anywhere around us! More than likely, this was due to the fact that in our household, Alex and I were the only bare practitioners among all the “textiles” (clothes enthusiasts)! Our immediate family had accepted our nudity without comment or judgment.

Our residential school environment changed our living situation. As August was now the final full month of our summer break from school, we began to experience “August anxiety.” The time just prior to the start of a new academic year meant that we would have to adjust to the very likely probability of new classmates within our dormitory existence.

New classmates is the equivalent of new persons who had to accept the reality of our naked preference. It opened the door to the possibility of judgment and rejection, not only from our peers but also from older students. As we were now in the later years of our primary-level education, any undue and unnecessary attention from others was not a welcome experience. Hence, the anxious or discomfort feeling concerning our return to the campus of our school for the Deaf and hard-of-hearing.

Thoughtful but anxious twins!

For Alex and I, this wasn’t a very carefree month. A life experience? Most definitely but not one of the most rewarding!

Naked hugs!

Roger Poladopoulos/ReNude Pride

Author’s Note: The next post entry here is planned for Monday, August 14, 2023, and the proposed topic is: “Aaron & Roger!”

My Naked Life!

The Shoneye Twins!

I wrote this simple poem the very first year that Aaron and I lived together and observed Nude Recreation Week as a serious bare practitioner couple. At that time, marriage equality wasn’t even available in the USA. Why celebrate the “land of the free?”

We let the Shoneye twins represent us in the verse.

The Shoneye Twins: a false sense of modesty!

My Naked Life

I am naked and I am me.

I am the man I want to be.

When I am naked, I am nude,

Living life with a positive attitude.

I am naked and I am me.

I am the man I want to be.

When I am nude, I am also proud.

Whether alone or among a crowd.

I am naked and I am me.

I am the man I want to be.

When I am nude, I am living free,

I know that clothes are not for me.

I am naked and I am me.

I am the man I want to be.

When I am nude, I clear my mind,

Gone are the clothes that hide and bind.

Roger Poladopoulos, July 5, 2011

The Shoneye Twins, proudly bare!

Naked hugs!

Roger Poladopoulos/ReNude Pride

Author’s Note: The next post entry here is planned for Monday, July 31, 2023, and the proposed topic is: “Bottoms-Up! July, 2023”

Mid-Summer Dream!

Reflective relaxation!

My spouse, Aaron, and I are unable to find a compromise as to precisely when “mid-summer” occurs. Trust me, we aren’t the only two who are clueless as to the date. None of our acquaintances or friends offer any solutions. Somehow, it seems that this the existence of a “mid-summer” date is actually is a myth created to confuse us all or to make chaos for everyone.

But no matter if it is imagined or real, it does serve as an inspiration for this post entry and as a name for this photographic series, “Mid-Summer Dream” – so christened by my spouse. The reasoning for his naming? It’s a bromantic skinny-dipping fantasy! Also, the pictures themselves have a somewhat vague, dream-like quality. Besides, the very concept of something as being so very mid-summer is itself appealing and mysterious!

Artistic posing!

A vague time and date but quite a very soothing and tranquil setting: a body of water with both of the subjects confidently and conveniently bare and relaxed. The aqua serves as a reflective tool for what we observe shared between the interracial couple: intimacy and trust.

Intensity together!

The duo transpire the message of “equal partners.” Neither one offers any suggestion of the notion of dominance or superiority. They seem very comfortable and on equal footing in every posing.

Their nakedness is unashamed!

An integral aspect of their relationship is their acceptance of one another and the absence of any concern in their being clothes free and open for all to see.

Calm and collected as one!

There’s no denying their affection and devotion to one another as they together experience a skinny-dip to refresh themselves from the summer heat. The message conveyed through their body language is one of contented relaxation!

Eye-to-eye contact!

Once they’re free from the stress of wearing clothing, it’s indeed amazing at how free the body responds in really tranquil situations. We can finally focus on simply being together with one another!

Together as one!

Side-by-side and hip-to-hip are ideal ways to pose to convey the message of togetherness. Of unity and complete commitment: a couple!

Hand-in-hand!

Holding onto one another is another example of body language that represents “joined” to the rest of the world. It suggests a union that is unable to be destroyed!

Together!

Their devotion and intimacy not only resounds through their poses together but also in the figures they convey through the positioning of their bodies. It is obvious to everyone viewing these images that something comforting, relaxing, peaceful and passionate exists between these two men. This, essentially, is the ultimate dream of the majority of us. Our foundation – together!

Aaron and I appreciate the subtle messages shared in these images here. Our upcoming anniversary next month is on display through this posting.

Naked hugs!

Roger Poladopoulos/ReNude Pride

Author’s Note: The next post entry here is planned for Monday, July 24, 2023, and the proposed topic is: “July Captivity!”

Nude Recreation Week: Recuperation!

Recuperation time!

2023 NUDE RECREATION WEEK

July 10 – 17, 2023

The full week is over for this year!

No way!

That does not mean that we need to get dressed now!

Our clothes freedom is not limited or restricted to just this one week of the entire year! Our nakedness is welcome throughout all the year! Often, Aaron (my spouse) and I have used the final day of Nude Recreation Week as a day to rejuvenate ourselves from the week-long event! A week of fun can sometimes be very tiring!

Floatation recuperation #1!

Which definitely doesn’t eliminate floatation as a legitimate method of recuperation! It is obviously designed as a viable tool for Nude Recreation Week!

Floatation recuperation #2!

It is both refreshing and relaxing and is a very comfortable method of spending our leisure time – especially while skinny-dipping!

Floatation recuperation #3!

All bare practitioners instantly qualify for this method of hanging out the summer afternoons without the stress of finding something appropriate and creative to wear!

I hope everyone had a terrific Nude Recreation Week! Remember: no clothing required!

Naked hugs!

Roger Poladopoulos/ReNude Pride

Author’s Note: The next post entry here is planned for Friday, July 21, 2023, and the proposed topic is: “Mid-Summer Dream!”

Bare Practitioner’s Day, 2023!

Reign: Unashamed on Bare Practitioner’s Day, 2023!

TODAY IS BARE PRACTITIONER’S DAY, 2023!

July 14, annually

A day for us to celebrate, honour and salute us for being ourselves!

We’ve just completed the entire month of June as GLBTQ+ Pride Month. We’re now observing Nude Recreation Week. Do we really need a Bare Practitioner’s Day to supplement the festivities? Is our ultimate goal an entire year of commemorations and/or occasions? A thoughtless retort to such a ridiculous suggestion is: Yes!

Is it necessary to question our every reason to enjoy being us? Are we all in danger of having such unfulfillment in our lives that we need to exploit opportunities to extol our characteristics that have created us in the uniqueness that we all enjoy? Unfortunately, in today’s world, the possibilities of our being denied give us little alternative.

A bare practitioner is a person who openly (without reservation or shame) accepts and acknowledges being same gender loving (bisexual or gay) and a naturist/nudist. Confident and proud, a bare practitioner endorses the community and culture shared by all, free from judgment and prejudice. Bare Practitioner’s Day is our day to celebrate, commemorate and dedicate to all of us being ourselves! We respect this for everyone and expect the same in return!

Gio Dell, oceanside bare practitioner!

The majority of us bare practitioners (same gender loving naturists/nudists) openly acknowledge that our way of life – freedom from embarrassment, guilt, humiliation or shame for being same gender loving and body and clothes free advocates – is nothing that any of us need to conceal. It is what and who we basically are. It is our right to be ourselves. Throughout history, society has deemed us as being perverse. We have been ridiculed, punished, denied equality and even attacked and beaten because of who we are. Therefore, culturally we have all earned the right to be and celebrate ourselves!

Equality for all!

For all of those persons who find discomfort in being bare around others, we all accept their level of comfort and their need for clothing. We may not understand – yet we concede their right to be different. For all of those persons who are unable to comprehend our affection and attraction for our same gender, it is our reality. We don’t share the same feelings but that’s fine. All of us have the right to be different!

Varying levels of physical exposure!

What is of primary importance is that we tolerate and understand these variations in our levels of comfort and respect everyone’s right to be who they truly are. If an aspect of someone else’s life makes us uncomfortable, we can choose to avoid that person or that situation.

Felipe Ferreira and his Pride tattoo!

There are various ways of expressing ourselves and conveying our beliefs and ideals to others. The degrees that we select to expose ourselves vary from person to person. Each person has the right to determine their own level of comfort in sharing their nakedness and sexuality with others.

How can love be a basis for hate?

We may not approve the message but we must recognize the variety that others employ to demonstrate themselves. The public displays of affection have many followers all at odds with one another.

Happy Bare Practitioner’s day, 2023!

Naked hugs!

Roger Poladopoulos/ReNude Pride

Author’s Note: The next post entry here is planned for tomorrow, Saturday, July 15, 2023, and the proposed topic is: “Nude Recreation Week: Weekend!”

First Day of Summer, 2023!

Northern Hemisphere: Summer, 2023!

Strip off your costume and splash into another season of aquatic splurging and natural antics!

Summer is here!

A Sun-bathed Nakedness

Walt Whitman

“Never before did I get so close to Nature; never before did she come so close to me…Nature was naked, and I was also…Sweet, sane, still Nakedness in Nature! – ah, if poor, sick, prurient humanity in cities might really know you once more! Is not nakedness indecent? No, not inherently. It is your thought, your sophistication, your fear, your respectability, that is indecent. There come moods when these clothes of ours are not only too irksome to wear, but are themselves indecent.”

Nakedness!

Also on this same date, primarily in Europe, Nude Hiking Day is observed. As this is the longest day of sunlight in the year in the Northern Hemisphere, it affords an excellent opportunity for an all day bare hike throughout the many trails!

Nude Hiking Day!

The best wishes for a safe and very happy Summer, 2023!

Naked hugs!

Roger Poladopoulos/ReNude Pride

Author’s Note: The post entry schedule for the remainder of June, 2023, is as follows:

Monday, June 26, 2023: “Why Pride?” Tuesday, June 27, 2023: “HIV Testing Day!” Wednesday, June 28, 2023: “Pride: SIR!” Friday, June 30, 2023: “Bottoms-Up! June, 2023”

Photo-Essay: Clarifications!

Aligned to cooperate!

Typical to the entire naturist/nudist community and culture: the approach of another summer season in the Northern Hemisphere renews the “great debate” over the labels and terms that we use to describe ourselves. My personal feeling? I don’t think the debate will ever resolve and this disagreement will last until the end of time.

Confusion surrounds what some purists (perfectionists) continuously argue as appropriate/inappropriate (good/poor) terminology.

Naked?

Nude?

Naturist?

Bare?

Body freedom?

Clothes freedom?

Natural?

Sunbathing!

I prefer sunbathing bare.

Beach visitors!

In the summer, we’d rather be natural!

Posing!

I am standing naked in the sunlight!

Skinny-dipping!

I enjoy the water nude!

SYNONYMOUS? INTERCHANGEABLE?

Shading his eyes!

I’d rather wear nothing whatsoever!

Naked hugs!

Roger Poladopoulos/ReNude Pride

Author’s Note: The next post entry here is planned for Monday, June 12, 2023, and the proposed topic is: “Pride: Inclusion!”

Bottoms-Up! May, 2023

A bottoms-up! kiss!

May is the final full month of the Springtime for those of us living in the Northern Hemisphere. This is reason enough for us to engage in a welcome exchange of kisses to those that we love while posing our buttocks for yet another picture together!

Bottoms-up! hitting the surf!

And also time for our brethren residing in the Southern Hemisphere to direct their buttocks surfside for a final floatation as they prepare for the arrival of another season “Down Under!”

XL posing in a designer jock-strap!

Our openly same gender loving model and adult actor, XL, poses his buttocks in a fashionable jock-strap (athletic supporter) so that we can all view his booty-ful buttocks!

Gio: aquatic bottoms-up!

Whether it’s a pool, lake or an ocean, the pleasures of skinny-dipping (swimming naked) afford us all the opportunity to boldly show everyone the spectacular buttocks that we are endowed!

Nap-time in the sunshine!

Relax and let the rest of the world worry about what tomorrow may bring! Being a bottoms-up! enthusiast allows us to bestow our booty-ful buttocks for admiration and desire!

Naked hugs!

Roger Poladopoulos/ReNude Pride

Author’s Note: The next post entry here is planned for tomorrow, Thursday, June 1, 2013, and the proposed topic is: “Happy Pride Month, 2023!”

Commonwealth Coronation Day!

A King is crowned!

To all of the subjects of the Commonwealth on the occasion of the coronation of King Charles III:

Saturday, May 6, 2023

Seventy years ago, June 2, 1953, his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, was crowned in Westminster Abbey.

God Save the King:

God save our gracious king,

long live our noble king,

God save the king.

Send him victorious,

happy and glorious,

long to reign over us.

God save the king.

Thy choicest gifts in store,

on him be pleased to pour.

Long may he reign.

May he defend our laws,

And give us every cause,

To sing with heart and voice,

God save the king!

A crowned king!

Naked hugs!

Roger Poladopoulos/ReNude Pride

Author’s Note: The next post entry here is planned for Monday, May 8, 2023, and the proposed topic is: “T’is the Season!”

Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day

Flag of Armenia with Coat of Arms!

The date, 24 April, commemorates the enforced deportation of Armenian intellectuals in 1915 from Constantinople (now Istanbul), Turkey as the Ottomans initiated the first genocide of the 20th century, of 1,500,000 Armenians during the Great War (World War I). This removal of individuals was followed by their families and soon the massacres and starvation of multitudes of Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire. Turkey was allied with Germany and Austria-Hungary in fighting the Allies.

Tragically, this was the first genocide of the 20th century. Although not as significant as the Nazi one undertaken later in the century, it still represents the magnitude of hatred that unfortunately occurs needlessly among humanity.

Armenia Genocide Memorial: Tsitsernakaberd!
Floral tributes to the Martyrs!

The very first commemoration of the Genocide occurred in 1919 at St. Trinity Armenian Church.

Naked hugs!

Roger Poladopoulos/ReNude Pride

Author’s Note: The next post entry here is planned for Sunday, April 30, 2023, and the proposed topic is: “Bottoms-Up! End of April!”