After reading some of the articles in the Boston Globe I think it is high time that this society redefined "molest" and "abuse" and got itself back to some more basic and ancient values with respect to the relationships between adults and children. To put it bluntly, the blanket application by this misguided society of some arbitrary age of consent is depriving many youngsters of the loving relationship that would keep them off the street, off drugs, and fed, clothed, and educated in ways beyond the curicula of most formal schools and all too many families. This is all too much like the so called War On Drugs: an insidious, self-serving bureaucracy creating a great waste of time and resources, a witch-hunt putting all too many innocent people in gaol, and no end in sight.
And then just in the nick of time comes this book: Harmful to Minors, The Perils of Protecting Children from [the "S" word], Judith Levine, University of Minnesota Press, ISBN 0-8166-4006-8.
Finally a respected author/reseacher speaks out with the minority viewpoint and is published by a major university. Perhaps there is yet hope for America. I hope you can find a copy before the censors and book burners manage to get it off the market.
I had a discussion about family nudity with a mother here last week.
She, her husband, and their three children all wanted to soak in the hot
mineral pools. At first they were accepting of the commons area--nude use
only--and the kids seemed to be agreeable, even excited, to get out of
their clothes and get into the water. The woman was ok with that but the
man wanted to know if he could wear his suit. Skysuit yes, textile no,
I told him. Then he wanted to know if he wore his shorts anyhow would I
hassle him. If I come in there and you are clothed, I said, I will hassle
you. The woman and I had been, at the same time, chatting about all the
other aspects of forcing children into clothing. Additionally, I said that
adults should be able to work nude, kids should go to school nude. Just
think of all the money and time and water that would be saved if the entire
population could live nude, especially in a city like Phoenix. Oh, she
thought that was a grand idea but her husband was having pink flashes around
his gills. I wanted to ask him what he was afraid of and I might have had
his kids not been so eager to see him boxed in. Finally, I took their money
and showed them to the commons area. As soon as that guy saw the several
nude folks already there he nearly dropped his towels trying to shield
his kids and get them turned around. Eventually they paid the additional
fee for a private pool where he could make them all wear their swimsuits.
So all was not lost, maybe they will return some day, but it is too bad
that these impressionable children were exposed to their father's ridiculous
and embarrassing behaviour instead of the sun and the air and each other.
Except
for AridZona (and some very few other places I am told). Here the population--most
of it anyhow--has the good sense to leave the clock alone. I suppose there
is, truthfully, some political or economic expediency at work here but
it is nice to believe in the possibility that here there is some sensibility
that has escaped the rest of the country. Or as some would say, There is
plenty enough sun during the day as it is, no point in adding an hour more.
Sarah La Gata conMigo Mesquite has a new worry. Now she has to open
her own door. She is a little put out, as it were, over this new freedom
of choice since it means that I will no longer be her doormouse to scamper
to her call every time she wants in or out. So, despite this new freedom
to come and go, she sleeps more. I can hardly wait to see what happens
when she tries to go out for a walk and the ground is racing along faster
than she can chase a mouse...
Way
back before my time, but some of you might remember the occasion, the southeast
wind blew 231 miles an hour across the summit of Mount Washington, land
of the world's worst weather, in New Hampshire. Today then is Happy Big
Wind Day.
From time to time, when I sit still in one place for long enough, I build a coloured glass window representative of that place. It is not really stained glass, that process involves painting the glass with dyes and baking the glass to set the colours. This glass is mostly solid colours that I cut and then piece together with lead to make a picture more like those found in a little kids colouring book. Much more my speed. This time I added some thin sections of cut and polished rock. Quartz and such, like geodes.
The
Naturist Society Southwest Festival was held at Shangri La Ranch in late
April. I've been to the Northeast affair twice as a guest but this time
my attendance was more to represent El Dorado Hot Spring. I'd not built
a display and booth since the old days of participating in Scout Shows
so this opportunity was a good creative outlet and learning experience.
Another book to put on your reading list: Nakedness and The Bible,
Paul M. Bowman. A long time in the research and writing and presently available
only from the author, this book debunks the contention that nudity is somehow
morally evil and proscribed by writings in the old and new testaments.
See the review by Mark Storey in "N" magazine 21.2, pp 94-95. Write Paul
M. Bowman p.o.box 1978, Ferndale WA 98248.
Cactus
Report: The Beaver Tail nearby the Desert Garden soaking area had as many
as fifty blossoms open at one time.
Now the days are getting warmer, as well as longer. The desert is blooming...
The time has come the walrus
said
to use a hackneyed phrase
Screwcap Man and Fliptop Boy
Have counted down the days
It's time for on the road
again
For driving through the maze
Of roads and ways and friends to visit
Of finding work that pays
Gardyloo, ajo
I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to
myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and
diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier
shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered
before me. --Sir Isaac Newton
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Copyright © 2003, A.J.Oxton, The Cat Drag'd Inn , 03813-0144.