As animals, we are very different from plants. Yet we love the green expanses of meadows, the great forests of beech or fir; we even like the grass or moss along the paths that invite us to walk barefoot (if not bare-skin). Something attracts us to nature, and it’s something we don’t have: the peaceful coexistence of countless different species. We are not like that. We use the difference to identify ourselves: male/female, white/black, rich/poor, thought A/thought B…
This photo would remind me of Richard Dadd’s painting The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke: pure chaos if we weren’t guided by the title to recognize the scene. I can only recognize four plants: common ragwort (to my right), laurel (to my left), ivy and poplar (behind). In all this difference, I tried to add myself. Seeing myself, with the sun reflecting off my skin, an equally chaotic stream of thoughts ran through my mind. Not having clothes helps me to absorb without filters, without selecting everything that comes to me. I am so different from the vegetable world: yet in all this diversity, I feel like a pea in a pod.
Vittorio, you always write something that is interesting and makes me think. Thank you.
Thank you, Senvestulo, for your comment. Nakedness symbolically works on us: just as we have thrown away our clothes, norms and social conventions, so too, day by day, we also undress culture and the thousands of cultural “habits” & conditioning. Just as we no longer turn red with shame if someone sees us naked because our sense of modesty has wholly disappeared, the same happened to ideas, contents, “hallucinations”, representations, and narratives that come to us from outside. I have become very critical against external contributions (even intellectual ones: books, movies, trendy thoughts…). We have some bud within us. When we are naked in silent nature, they can blossom and finally show the potential flowers they were. The first to be surprised is me. I ask myself, “how do new thoughts come into being?” I can’t answer that – and it’s not even necessary. I am content to have these new thoughts because they confirm that they do not come from outside; they are original, they come from me, from nature. Nature makes everyone blossom, makes everything grow… And if it’s true that we also come from the earth, I understand why nature can nurture beautiful thoughts too. And I think this can happen to everyone.