The Naked Truth

by Skye Moody

Liv Fun: Vol 7 – Issue 1

The gorilla stands 10 feet tall, or so it seems. He’s a giant, anyway. I’m five feet tall and weigh in the vicinity of 85 pounds, fully dressed. The gorilla is naked — which is the point of this story — and weighs, I’d guess, 600.

His mood at the moment is sour, putting it mildly, as he grips the iron bars that separate him from his freedom. He’s a captive, forced into living as a specimen of his species for a gaggle of dressed-therefore-civilized humans.

I’m in a zoo, one of those horrendous institutions where most “animals” are caged while the human animals are free rangers. People, myself included, stand around gawking at the gorilla. Not at his hairy nakedness; just amazed at his size compared to our puny selves. I’m chagrined to be among the gawkers, but I couldn’t resist seeing him up close and personal, despite the iron bars that divide us.

Then it happens. One of the gawkers has brought along a treat for King Kong’s imprisoned cousin. A thoughtful gesture, to be sure. The gawker lobs the banana at the gorilla, who catches it — thwup — in his hand. A one-second pause, then in one swift motion, the gorilla flings it back out at the gawker, smacking him upside the face.

I laugh. Folks back off. This behemoth might be dangerous, despite the caging. The crowd stares at his naked hairiness. The expression on his face is one of anger, or perhaps outrage, affront. The intensity of his red eyeballs scares the pants off the human banana tosser. Can’t the banana-throwing human see the gorilla has had enough fruit tossed at him already? And how dare he assume this gorilla wants a banana? A fresh papaya might’ve been more to his taste.

There we stand in our clothed bodies, free of iron bars, to come and go as we wish. There he stands behind those bars against his will, yet in a sense freer than all the gawkers combined. Free of the encumbrance of clothing that humans have used since they evolved from monkeys to brainiacs who, once upon a Garden of Eden, detected a voice commanding them to cover their shameful bodies lest others observe they possess similar anatomy to one another — and to the family from which they spawned.

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Liv Fun

by Leisure Care
Spring 2018
View Table of Contents

Our Bodies
by Tammy Kennon

We are living into our 70s, 80s and even 90s in relative comfort. Advancements in science and healthcare are responsible for giving us these bonus years, and scientists have not abandoned us now that we’re here. They continue to explore our brave, old world and are finding relatively simple, proactive ways we can keep our bodies well-tuned and flourishing.

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The Naked Truth
by Skye Moody

The gorilla stands 10 feet tall, or so it seems. He’s a giant, anyway. I’m five feet tall and weigh in the vicinity of 85 pounds, fully dressed. The gorilla is naked — which is the point of this story — and weighs, I’d guess, 600. There we stand in our clothed bodies, free of iron bars, to come and go as we wish. There he stands behind those bars against his will, yet in a sense freer than all the gawkers combined.

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Return to Pearl Harbor
by Paul Golde

On December 7, 1941, my father was a handsome, lanky 18-year-old enjoying the new film Babes on Broadway. He was a typical New York City kid who loved to sing, so an afternoon off from working at the family bakery to enjoy a musical with friends was nothing short of heavenly … until someone ran down into the front of the theater to shout out the hellish news of the Pearl Harbor attack.

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