Catch a Falling Star

I am slowly losing the ability to see.

But things have never been more clear.

The world is literally dying,

And it is life-threatening to be here.

And yet, what dies can be reborn.

And the blind can better hear.

Yes, Mickey still has more of this stuff to say. So, hang onto your shorts, and don’t let the old bird talk you out of them. But he’s gonna try… just like naturists once lobbied him.

And this stuff will probably not be as surprising as it was once or twice before, because you have heard him say it… err, saw him write it… in a previous post. Or two or three of them.

If you are one of those sane people who are not crazy enough to repeatedly read this blog, then you may indeed be surprised by stupid Mickey saying, “It’s good for you to be naked.” So, I should quickly review why Mickey ever needed to think about becoming a nudist at all.

You see, when Mickey was a child of ten, he was sexually assaulted by an older boy. Not a pleasurable thing, mind you, but a bizarre twisting of the private parts under threats of hurting the victim even more if he cried out or called for help. You know, the kind of thing that causes so much trauma that poor Mickey couldn’t allow himself to remember until he was twenty-two when he suddenly relived the entire incident in a PTSD-like flashback.

After the flashback, stupid Mickey decided that on this topic he needed to make himself into a smarter Mickey. He took a sociology class in college on human sexuality. He learned about the sexual abuse of children and the effects it commonly had on its victims. And of the many things he learned, he learned that it is important in the matter of healing to tell somebody. But he had a good, loving family, and he was reluctant to bring a life-spoiling thing like that to their attention. And the Methodist minister who had saved his life as a young teenager had moved away to a distant new congregation. So, who did he tell? His second regular girlfriend, the one who had been previously married and divorced. She had been through some tough things herself and therefore was able to understand.

The relationship between Mickey and Ysandra developed from working together as a teacher and teacher’s aide in a small South Texas school district. Their working relationship grew into a dating sort of thing by 1983, and one of the things that they most liked to do together was visiting Austin for the weekends. It was a long drive, but Mickey’s parents and Ysandra’s sister, and her family lived in the area. Mickey would stay in his parents’ house. And Ysandra would stay with her sister, her sister’s husband, and their baby daughter. They would go to see the sights in Austin, Zilker Park, the stage shows, the movie theaters, the good restaurants, and even the circus when it came to town. But there was one unexpected complication. Ysandra’s sister lived in a clothing-optional apartment house. And real nudists lived there.

Picking up Ysandra meant embarrassment. Mickey had to go up to the door with one of those sliding window things that gangsters use on bootlegger-casino doors, alert the gatekeeper to his presence, and then wait while the naked, hairy guy went and got Ysandra. And she invariably asked Mickey to come in and wait while she finished getting ready. There were lots of things inside there to look at and turn red over. Two young girls, probably sixth graders, were swimming nude in the pool one time, showing off bare butts when they dived. Another time, two beautiful young women with t-shirts and no pants on glared at him the whole time Mickey stood by the pool because, unbeknownst to Mickey, he was staring at them with an open mouth and purple face.

A third time, a boy with blond hair and no clothes on was playing pool at the courtyard pool table.

“Hey, skinny guy!” the boy said to Mickey, “take your clothes off and come play pool with me.”

“Can’t. Waiting for the girlfriend. Going to a movie,” Mickey said nervously.

Ysandra was fine with making fun of Mickey for being constantly embarrassed. She and her friends there enjoyed asking Mickey to go nude while spending time there, which he never did. The ladies got a good laugh when his face turned strange colors. But one of her brother-in-law’s friends took pity on Mickey and told him about the benefits of being naked in nature, nude in the sunshine, and meditating in your birthday suit. He also gave Mickey a book on naturism and an address for where he could get more such books.

And books were Mickey’s fatal weakness. He read and learned a lot about nudism. In his apartment, when he was alone and not expecting visitors, he got comfortable being naked most of the time. Of course, being seen naked by anyone else would start up the PTSD again. It was bad enough to interfere with getting closer and more intimate with Ysandra and eventually forced them apart. And being a school teacher precluded being known to be a nudist for Mickey. Still, the experience would lead to Mickey’s heart being captured by nudism as an ultimate goal.

Whether there will be a part 5 or not depends on a lot of things. For now it is merely a lingering threat.