Excerpts from Blog published on www.Babycenter.com from 2006-2007
By Leah Bassoff
July 9, 2006
"The Naked Truth"
It has been raining for a whole week straight. The rain streaks away the kids' chalk drawings and causes mushrooms to grow around our front porch. We feel as though we are living in a suburban rain forest.
Rather than feeling gloomy on account of the rain, Kevin and Avery seem energized. As the rain slaps against our driveway, Kevin puts a wool cap on his head, strips off all his clothes, and runs outside to dance like a racy version of Gene Kelly. When I chase after him and implore him to put on a bathing suit, he looks at me with his rain-drop blue eyes and asks, "Why can't I just be naked?"
"You're getting too old to be naked in public," I tell him. I do not tell him about the times when, back in college, my friends and I went skinny dipping in the nearby chigger-filled lake or went streaking. How glorious it felt to be that illicit and that uninhibited.
"So just because I'm five and three quarters I can't be naked anymore?" Kevin asks, and I feel as though I am a grumpy God giving Adam and Eve the boot from The Garden.
I ponder Kevin's half-question, half-accusation as rain drips off of my nose. Looking at the soggy and disappointed Kevin, I ask him, "Is it that important to dance naked in the rain?" Somehow I am secretly pleased when Kevin nods and says that yes it is. "Then go," I tell him and send him back into the rain. I am releasing a captive animal back into the wild. Kevin runs off unabashed and shining. Watching him I feel almost jealous. He is the essence of freedom.
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