Swimming Naked...Flirting with Exposure

Friday Forum Friends:

Swimming Naked…
Flirting with Exposure

Clothes are a burden…fling ‘em off, escape work and go swimming. Dog Days in Dixie have returned! Let’s shed some of the superfluity and risk exposure.

The printer’s ink, heavy and black, jumps from the pristine white paper of the WSJ as the Expose du jour sells the morning papers. The gloating masses of voyeurs are giddy with excitement to see that justice, though delayed, has not been averted…of course, justice to others, not to themselves.

Fortunately for most, these horrors of failure, financial ruin and market meltdown mayhem can be viewed vicariously, not experientially. While printer’s ink rubs off on our hands, it can be washed off a lot easier than the contamination that’s being experienced by those who have lived arrogantly and recklessly on the ledge of leverage.

The Sage of Omaha, Warren Buffet, once characterized these days as follows:

“When the tide goes out, we’ll see who’s been swimming naked, and it’ll be an ugly sight.”
It’s a biting wit that sees things in such a light!

But swimming naked was not necessarily a bad thing c. 1954. After school the herd of us precocious pre-pubescence boys headed to the Spring Creek for a swim…yes, a naked swim! The creek was cold, clear and secluded. We cavorted innocently with nothing to hide (well, at that age, there was nothing yet to hide), diving from the high bank and swinging on the cable into a deep pool of the creek.

The swimming hole was always called “The Joe Hole,” ostensibly named for some old Creek Indian or narcissist farmer… out of respect we kept the name to perpetuate the legacy of “Joe.”

There was one friend (there’s always ONE!) who cared more for walking the bank than swimming. He strolled atop the high bank, exposing certain miraculous attributes nature sometimes doles out to a select few. He was what was commonly called a “bank walker,” for reasons not difficult to discern. I have a suspicion he might have been discovered by some B-rated movie director and exploited while his youth lasted. His whereabouts remain a mystery.

But, alas, youth is always a Flood Tide, and never lasts. Like beauty, physical perfections and fame, the more one has early-on, the more one has to lose in a painfully slow attrition. The tide always recedes, exposing what it heretofore hid. It’s one of life’s most hideous atrocities to which we’re all heirs.

Let’s face the brutal naked truth: we all grew up and we all kept swimming naked. Pretense and disguise have many costumes, and the cost of avoiding exposure has been heavy and expensive…no wonder we prefer to stay in deep water.

The Tide is changing fast now in America. Sand bars and detritus are being exposed at a rapid rate. We are sick of the rancid diet politicians dish out and are exhausted from the Media’s brutal beatings. It has all soiled our minds and poisoned our attitudes. The poet has said,

“Who knows but what defeat is victory in disguise,
The lowest point is the turn of the tide.”

Most of us hope we are near that point.

But it’s Dog Days now, so lighten up some. But remember this: If you’re swimming naked out there somewhere, when you’re “Exposed,”--- and notice I said “when,” not “if,”---may your exposure be a thing of beauty and a wondrous sight to behold. And make no mistake, we’ll all be looking!

Bud
July 31, 2008