View from the North 40: It sounds like a joke, but feels like hope

A man walked into a Planet Fitness in Plaistow, New Hampshire, last weekend, stripped to his nothings at the front door, paced a few laps in the exercise area naked, checked himself out in the mirror naked, then staked a claim on a yoga mat where officers found him still buck naked in a "yoga-type position," Plaistow police Capt. Brett Morgan told several news outlets.

Morgan also said that the guy's only comment to officers who came to arrest him was to say that he thought the gym had a judgment-free zone - referencing the fitness chains motto.

The guy had drug paraphernalia in his possession, not on him of course, but with his clothes, but officers said he didn't appear under the influence, and paramedics assessed him and released him. Officers charged him with indecent exposure/lewdness and disorderly conduct and released him back into the community on bail.

The obvious question here is: Why did he do this? Was it drugs? Or mental illness? Possibly, but it's not like he was even admitted to a facility of some kind for observation, so how drugged or mentally ill could he have been?

It's entirely possible that he was just being a guy. That's just as likely as the other two possibilities. Let's be honest, who among us doesn't know a handful of guys capable of this, either now or "back in the day," and if you're like me, you have the contact info of at least one guy who you feel compelled to call to see if it was him.

Or maybe I just know the right wrong people.

Still, here's the other thing that struck me about this incident: the other people.

I read a pretty fair sampling of articles on this incident and nowhere did I see something that said the other people in the gym left, sneaked out, casually walked away with their eyes discreetly averted or otherwise fled the scene while a naked guy was parading around in the enclosed space with them.

Morgan said people in the "pretty crowded" gym reported "they felt uncomfortable, disgusted, sick and unsafe," but no one said they headed for the exit.

Someone wondered what he was smoking, at least one person wondered if he even had a gym membership and one person described the incident with the strongest language: "That's weird." Oh, OK.

"Well I just moved out here, so this is a 'Live Free or Die' state, so anything's free." gym member Doug Wilson said in an interview with WMUR news.

"It's not a clothing-free zone," Morgan pointed out to the Globe in a statement that sounded almost like a joke.

The fitness chain's website does promise, though, a "Judgment Free Zone," where members "feel comfortable regardless of their fitness level." Mission accomplished.

I have to commend Planet Fitness, its Plaistow patrons, the ambulance crew, the officers and the captain himself. They've come about as close to being judgment free as we're going to find outside, maybe, a Buddhist monastery somewhere in the mountains of Tibet or something.

This is about the most hopeful sign in real life I've seen that modern humanity might survive its current wave of divisiveness. From the bottom of my heart, naked guy, thank you, too.

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Disclaimer: This column is not to be construed as an endorsement by its author or this newspaper to appear naked, in whole or in part, in public or at http://facebook.com/viewfromthenorth40/. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.