Conformity

The beach is clothing optional, but to this point it’s been pretty much
only the adventurous older part of our crowd (late 20′s early 30′s) who have
taken off suits while swimming and demurely put them back on while facing
away from everyone else.

Today, however, a few of us were sent down in a “quick, hurry, go swim!”
type situation, so fast as to miss getting swimsuits, at about 5 PM. So
Keith, myself, Ruth and Zoe ended up swimming in boxers, briefs (stylin’
black MEC for me) and bras for the girls. Out on the floating dock with
diving board and the likes, and the girls comment on how hard it is to keep
things on that weren’t meant to stay on in the water, and someone notices
that the only other people on the beach (a woman and her daughter) are
swimming in the nude. A brief discussion is overheard by the woman – she
starts to apologize and we explain that we’re actually trying to decide.
“You’re all young and beautiful – take advantage of it!” she encourages.
Moments later we have.
Michelle and I chatting about the day a bit later on, about Robert Beatty,
the big ticket fellow who is facilitating the current retreat. “I could have
listened to him all afternoon” she commented. “I could not, for the same
reason” I replied. He’s got a way of presenting himself to groups, to our
staff meeting for example, that wins people over easily, but is like a
soloist in an orchestra – just slightly off key. Not enough that the
audience notices anything is amiss, but enough to tell every individual to
pay attention to this specific melody.