Our Body - Carrier of Life

by G. Neustreit

We must learn to understand clothing and being clothed anew; that is one thing. The other is to apply this understanding through free decision.

It is basically a materialistic viewpoint which has made fashion into a flexible instrument. Man's natural need for clothing has stamped it as questionable by various "fashionable" tricks and has warped the state of being clothed into a lascivicious procedure of disrobing; in other words, the instinct-driven animal in man has let it loose on man's reason, which usually judges by the standards of purposefulness and beauty. Whatever wants to protect, beautify — perhaps with merciful intention — to clothe human judgment, sells itself up to a screaming, present day publicity according to the law of supply and demand.

Then the clothing oneself follows an inner and suitable inclination, for the human body is already dress and covering in itself. The physical body is a covering — that is indeed nothing new — but it is a covering among others. It holds out the mental form of the human being as the vessel its contents, the encircling bud-leaves the tender flower structure. But as we know we are not satisfied with just the dead body. We demand that it be interwoven with a soul and life structures. One could actually speak of finer "bodies" — even of those which appear as carriers of life and soul. The intellectual teachings of the East and West clarify that for us further. According to that we live in a complex organization and as living, feeling humans wear clothing of quite diverse materials. This thought, perhaps at first alien to us, will be more evident when we reflect that a pleasing exterior does not always offer a guarantee of satisfactory intelligence. In meeting we bring with us a secret which to a great extent is independent from the physical. And it is not always corporeal merits which make the nearness or environs of a person pleasant or repulsive to us. Therefore we can't be surprised, either, when not all people are able to show us friendly affection.

Of course it is not sufficient to have indicated a human image according to which this mind-man given to certain coverings, is formed. As member of the world of life, soul and mind this man projects into the cosmic expanses in which there are beings who are able to build contact to our transcendental "body"-covering.

Just one example: We have among others to reckon with the reality that myths and fairy-tales know as the evil and the tempter. It is possibly able to infect our soul-body with lies, hate, envy, greed as viruses and bacilli can do to our physical body. What happens does not only have "local" effects. Even despite our complexity we are a unit. There-fore our whole being suffers from it. A defect clings to us, which no beauty patch, no dress nor fashion creation can hide. What we "have on" in the sphere of the soul (just as we can have on" tattered clothes or clothes in bad taste) shows in our eyes, dominates our thinking and feeling and finally comes out in our behavior. Morality and propriety forbid it in vain. No etiquette can conceal it. We are unmasked before experts of human nature. And as we don't want to commit our-selves in our self avowed knowledge of our insufficiencies, our wearing of clothes takes on a very questionable character.

What finally has happened? — The well-dressed man has become completely "naked". Suitable here is the biblical tale which says after the Fall of the first human couple: "And they saw, that they were naked ..." "And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed", — with these words the Bible indicates a past state of innocence — and we add: state of innocence still possible today. Here is man completely what he is. The old commentators speak of Adam's radiant light-dress in respect to this quotation and circumscribe thus that which is not there from the very beginning without one's own help, but which is exactly the realization of that free decision of will of which we spoke at the beginning.

Decision of will? — Plain initiative, good will alone won't do it. Intelligent recognition must precede it. But even vice versa the best intended idea is useless if it can't be incorporated in life and work. Let's look at a child! It plays in light and sun in its loveliest and creation-like dress. What does the child know about being naked? Being undressed is a condition for him just like any other. And lovers who experience the joy of physical nearness, don't they know them-selves transplanted back in the reality of paradise? (Here must be added, that the accent should not be placed on "back", for all life must have stability in face of the present and future.) May egoism and filth burden the human conscience again and again and thus injure a free condition of life, a miracle is still possible. A man may deprive himself of the free development of his real being through prejudice and cynicism but a love experience removes all stains. The innocence of paradise's morning is given to him again through his pure partner.

That one can wear the light dress in genuine cheerfulness and freedom of spirit hasn't been a theory for a long time. Only those with evil intentions or those who have simply not dared to do it or who haven't experienced it can say that we want to wear it at all times and at any price. The aforesaid clarifies also that a plain "Nude Culture-Fashion" without the culture and care of the whole person cannot remain spared from clear criticism.

He, however, who has found the way to a new experience in the physical through the recognition of his human existence and in the realization of his possibilities, he will from then on know no worthier human gown than the clothing of his own body and thus will agree with the poet Friedrich von Hardenberg-Novalis, who says:

"There is only one temple in the world and that is the human body. Nothing is holier than this high form. The bowing before man is an homage to this revelation in flesh ... One touches heaven when one touches a human body."