Naked and Unashamed: Embracing Vulnerability Amid Chaos

I’d just returned to the mainland from a visit back to Kauai when Lockdown began, and the opportunity to remember the lessons from my time living there has helped me through this year-long month. I’ve often joked that on the island everyone might as well be “naked” because it doesn’t matter how rich or poor or fashionable or successful you are—you’re on the same rural rock as everyone else, so if you want human interaction then you have to drop all your judgements and see each other as children again, beneath the trappings of the world. 

Since the pandemic, on my dark days I try to remember this lesson and focus on the fact that some will rise from these ashes in ways they maybe couldn’t have until society’s assumptions burned to the ground. 

The Hawaiian people also taught me a phrase that I’ve shared like a mantra these past eternal weeks: “No Shame.” 

Even with a vaccine, we as a society have some massive healing to do in the coming years—from the grief, the trauma, the loss of jobs, the racism, the poverty, the brainwashing, the rise in domestic violence, the belief that the system will never work for us and so there’s no point in having hope. 

Creating a healthier society post-COVID literally lies in how each and every one of us chooses to go forward in our own personal lives. Be not ashamed to ask for and receive help. Be not ashamed to be broken. Be not ashamed to rebuild, from scratch. Be not ashamed to love and need love. Be not ashamed to need. We are humans—needing each other is wired into our DNA. Be not ashamed to be human! It is in our shared needs, our shared traumas and shared healing that we will find a shared vision of a better way forward.

Be “naked.” Be vulnerable. Don’t be afraid of the “nakedness” and vulnerability of others. We are but children stuck together on an island in a great blue mystery. We will get through this together.

Jess Lee

JESS LEEis an environmental & community advocate drawn to borders, ecotones, and the shadows between the lines. She was raised in the forests of Appalachia and lived for many years in Mexico, Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest. Her short stories and essays have been published in Cutthroat, Burnt Pine, The Humanist and Z Magazine.

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