Insidious Adaptation

"The popularity resides in the clothes," a thought that drove my summer vacation. A fear that I would be seen for the inadequate self I truly identified as. The kids seeing me as this once-popular student, now nothing more than another, “poor” kid. I knew the truth, I knew that the clothes I wore were expensive, and yet, I HAD to have them. I was consumed by the inevitable situations I would land in, depictions of Tommy Hilfiger commercials running in my head as my cargo handle was grabbed by some girl in a midriff top, interested, giving me that which I could not establish within myself.  This is all in retrospect for in the moment, as I worked all summer long, babysitting and mowing lawns, to get the coveted check from my father to then go and budget appropriately, along with the minuscule amounts donated from mom, I could afford the clothes to match the persona of a “cool” kid. I missed the part where I was supposed to live and experience life, and instead I isolated...

What is it about the naked human body that we deem such a, "thing?" I believe there are people who try and pretend to make it less significant, determined to make all places nude, where a beach is no longer for serpents in the sea, where the grocery store’s banana and melon sections could be on the move, where the dinner’s napkins and bibs more crucial as the soufflé comes out as the sales of baked Alaskans decrease significantly. I believe that besides the novelty that these same people are pretending exists, they feel the most comfort clothed, and there is a shock factor involved, a sort of “look at me, I am free, unlike you clothed, ‘restrained’ people." However, the body is not necessarily the most comforted clothed. Why? The Bible is why. Genesis is why. Being naked from the dawn of the fallen man, an indicator of significance.  The latest fads could have been merely ways to shave the body’s hair, or a tattoo, for which if the latter went out of style, much li...