Dump Your Duds at the Door

The nude welcome is a simple and yet profound welcome.

Can there be anything as sincere as being welcomed to a friend’s home and being invited to remove your clothes? Your hosts are already nude, they prepare you something to drink, perhaps introductions are made if needed, and all during this time, you are unburdening yourself of layers of cloth or fiber. It is a relief, a comfort, a true well-coming.

After all, why stop with the shoes? Many folks take their shoes off just inside the door when they arrive home, for reasons of cleanliness. But clothes, too, have been exposed to public transportation, school desks, theater seats, waiting room furniture, spills and smells and microbes. Why not take them off too?

If it’s a warm summer day, an ideal welcome would be to remove your clothes and rinse off at the outdoor shower that these ideal hosts have on their beautiful deck. If not, OK, an indoor shower. Maybe if it’s a cold day, your hosts invite you to draw a quick bath while they fetch you a towel and prepare your coffee, tea, or hot chocolate.

The point is that even if it is only you yourself that you are welcoming to your own home, drop your garb as soon as you can. As soon as you unload your groceries, or take out the trash or walk the dog or whatever it is that you still must do clothed because of our paranoid society that would rather see guns than penises, then take off your clothes and feel your stress reduce, your blood pressure drop, your spirits rise.

But then what do you do if you’re relaxing at home in the nude and you hear a knock at the door? Well, if you can, extend the pleasure of a nude welcome to your guest. He or she may be surprised or alarmed at first, only to later realize what a terrific boon you’ve given. But, what if it’s someone that you just couldn’t or shouldn’t receive in the nude? And – how can you tell which kind of visitor is at the door?

Here’s the answer! As I was preparing this post, I saw a series of tweets from MattNaturist, who has devised a clever solution:

 
I wrote Matt to ask about his interesting approach to the nude welcome, and he explained to me that he set up two independent, wireless ringing devices. He has tweeted a few results: a solicitor used the upper bell, so he dressed. A neighbor used the lower bell, but he wasn’t naked when he answered and didn’t feel that he needed to take the time to undress at the moment. MattNaturist also told me that he copied the idea from yet another naturist Twitter user, which means that the idea is spreading…

If you can’t or don’t want to set up two bells, you can always try yelling through the door, “I’m nude – are you OK with that?” On the other hand, maybe that’s too polite –  maybe you’re the kind of person who opens the door stark naked no matter who is there, come what may, welcome who may be welcomed. The nude welcome will not work for everybody or for all occasions, it’s true. But as one of life’s finer pleasures, it should definitely be extended to, and experienced by, more people – whether they are already nude-friendly, or just one Dump-Your-Duds-at-the-Door-experience away from being lifelong naturists.