Unlearning Shame
We all know –either from our own kids, from friends' and family's, or even from memories of when we were kids ourselves– that young children love to run around and play without the burden of clothes. Nakedness –or the feeling of delight and freedom that it produces– is the perfect accompaniment to children's exhilarating games. Young children are as yet unconcerned by torturous considerations of shame and embarrassment; in fact still, blissfully, don't have the faintest idea of what these concepts are. They simply immerse themselves in their recreation time with total, unfettered liberty. As we progress past our early years we begin to learn, or to be taught, something that can take a lifetime to unlearn (if ever at all), namely that we can't be naked in company, that it's not "decent" to be naked in front of others, and that we must always exercise the utmost care not to reveal certain parts of our bodies. Parents, teachers and other "authority...
