AllAmericanBoyNextDoor

Kerik on a nude beach

Have you ever given serious thought to how many material possessions you have? I hadn’t ever really thought about it until a few years ago when a friend moved to CA from FL. When he moved, he had to do it pretty cheap. What little furniture he had, he gave away. Everything he took with him consisted of his car (a sedan) and what he could fit into it. That’s it!

That was a wakeup call to me. I started to think about how many things I have in my house. And I began to wonder, what would it be like to be away from all my material possessions, just for a little while. “How could I detach myself from them?” I wondered.

I had my opportunity during my next trip to S. Florida. Leaving behind my house full of shit, I drove my truck to Florida. I pack pretty light because when I go to Florida, I stay at clothing optional resorts and when I do have to wear something, it’s either a very skimpy thong, or shorts and a tank top. So, I was away from most of my material possessions.

Then, some friends who had flown to Florida to join me rented a car, and we decided to drive down to the nude beach. So, I left my truck behind, put on my thong and packed a few things in a plastic bag — my room key, a few dollars cash, and a beach towel, which wasn’t even mine. We drove forty-five minutes to the beach. So, now all I had that belonged to me was a thong, and a few dollars.

When we got to the beach, we went to the north end, the gay section. I slipped off my thong and laid out for awhile. Soon though, it was time to be even further from any of my possessions. Leaving my friends for a bit, I set off to walk to the far south end of the beach. I would say it was about a mile — a fifteen minute walk. This was as far as I could get to being away from all my possessions — naked as the day I was born, and a mile away from my nearest piece of clothing, and a few dollars cash.

It was a brief moment, but it was a spiritual experience — it was enlightening. Since that time, I’ve become more conscious of just how much shit I have and I have been working steadily to reduce the amount. I also realized how lucky I am to have the means to actually have that much stuff because there are so many people on this planet, who survive with so little of anything.