LIFE LESSONS + CULTURE

I Was Naked in a Public Hot Tub and Got a Philosophy Lesson

Peace Pilgrim’s words carry me even now

Photo by Anastasiya Lobanovskaya:

Peace Pilgrim — a long-dead philosopher — was unknown to me in 1982, when I was twenty-three and mostly getting high, doing living room acrobatics with my girlfriends, and dancing at clubs until ‘last call’ was shouted. How odd that an afternoon in a hot tub would impact me so deeply.

Portland, Oregon was a great club scene in the ’80s, and we spent every weekend dancing at Ember’s, a gay club where we watched guys in black leather dancing on the platforms. Kelli was my girlfriend back in the early break-dancing days, when we put sheets of linoleum on our floors and spun on our backs to practice moves. This evolved into a ‘flying’ maneuver we invented and shared with our best friends Joan and Mary.

We spent weekends ‘flying’ each other in Joan and Mary’s living room. This was the weirdest diversion ever, something only youngish adults might do. One person lies on her back, feet up and on the other person’s hips. The person flying is suspended in the air, ‘flying’ and totally at the mercy of their own balance and the ground person’s athleticism. We did this for hours!