I know it's an old photo. But you know what? I can't help but look at it and smile the biggest and happiest smile.
Today, folks, is Friday as you all may very well know. Fridays, around these parts, we sometimes like to take our clothes off and get naked. We call them Naked Fridays. I started Naked Fridays back before I even started this blog. I bet some of you didn't even know that, did you? I'm also guessing that there are some of you who also have no idea why I started Naked Fridays and what they're really all about.
I'm going to tell you.
The reason I'm choosing today to tell you as opposed to last Wednesday or the second Tuesday from March 23, whenever that might have been, is because, well, obviously, today is Friday. So it kind of sort of makes a little bit of sense to explain it today. But also it just so happens that the good folks at KRCL radio here in Salt Lake City are going to have me on as a guest! Can you believe that? Public radio in Salt Lake City has asked me, Nakedjen, to be a guest?! I just want to take this opportunity to point out that I lived in the Bay Area for 20 years and was never once invited to be the guest on a radio program while I lived there. I move to Salt Lake City, a move that was seriously questioned by most of my friends and family, and what do they do? They invite me to come and be a guest on the radio. I'm not kidding about Salt Lake. I really do like it here! And not just because everyone is being so damn nice to me all the time!
Anyway, I was explaining about Naked Fridays.
Even before I began this blog, I was already known on the Internet to lots of really fabulous people as Nakedjen. And a lot of these fabulous people had some pretty unhappy feelings about their own bodies. Feelings of hatred and remorse and guilt and shame.
It bothered me that these beautiful women (and men) were so tormented by the shape of their own bodies. They would share with me how they avoided mirrors. How they would wear clothes a little too big to hide their shape. How they avoided swimming pools and locker rooms and didn't even allow their own wives or husbands to see them naked. It was just awful to me. Such self-hatred can only lead to bad things. If we can't love ourselves first, how can we possibly be open to loving others?
So I started Naked Fridays. I encouraged these people to spend a little time naked. It could be 30 seconds. It could be 30 minutes. It could be all day. But on Fridays, I encouraged them to get truly naked and celebrate the beautiful bodies that were uniquely theirs and theirs alone.
No one else has a body just like yours. No one. And let me tell you, no one else is as perfect and beautiful as you are, either. I know, I know. Those of you who are uncomfortable being naked are shaking your heads and perhaps even laughing at my new age mumbo jumbo. But let me share this with you. I have received thousands (yes thousands) of emails from people all over this planet who have celebrated their naked bodies on a random Friday and realized that, yes, they are beautiful. That yes, their body is worth cherishing. That, yes, a naked body is a gift. A gift that should never be shamed.
It makes my heart swell to know that there are so many lovely people in this world who have taken the chance, who have gotten naked, who have learned to love themselves just a little bit more because of Naked Fridays. It really does. We're all only given one body during our journey on this earth. Don't you think it's a good idea to really cherish and celebrate it? I do. So, if you're in Salt Lake and within listening distance, feel free to tune in today and hear me blather on about this and other things from 6-7 p.m. on KRCL. But if you're not? I suggest that you go get naked. It is Friday after all.
