Does life in rubber limit what you would otherwise do? That’s easy to answer – yes, of course it does! However, I think the way I chose to live MY life in rubber and how it affects the quality of MY life has to be personally assessed against the alternatives. How would MY life be different without such a lot of time in rubber? What, if anything am I missing out on? This will be different for everyone.
Take some extreme examples. Maybe if my childhood dream was to be deep sea diver, wearing rubber and masks would not be such a handicap as it would be if my true vocation was to be a great athlete or a priest or a politician!?!?! Maybe rubber encasement would be a handicap if I were the sort of person who, to feel at ease with myself, had to be totally accepted by the widest possible circle of fiends and society at all times. But some of us are just a little more individual and private. Some of us prefer to socialise with a smaller circle of people who will accept us for who we are, rather than the “norm” of the herd.
I would fail the “loner” test these days, as I have got used to my social life even though it compromises my preferred rubber existence. However, it would be true to say that I am more self contained than some. Irrespective of rubber, I do not fear being alone some of the time, I do not fear the absence of hustle & bustle. I do need my own space and time. Luckily, all of these character factors do help make me more compatible with my rubber oriented life.
And then there is the question of what would I miss if I was not living in rubber? Well, for me, it’s quite a special existence. It’s actually exquisite, and yet so difficult to explain. It all sounds so contradictory when I try. I feel so at home and yet so special. I find it so comfortable and comforting to be sealed from the environment for extended periods, yet it sometimes requires dedication to want to go on after a few hours encasement.
Sleeping through the night in rubber is a huge challenge. In my case, the main challenge is in controlling my body temperature. A challenge I cannot pretend I always win. In particular, I have found that in summer I would usually over-heat if I am sharing a bed with my partner while I am totally encased in rubber.
Disrupted sleep and the general requirements of sharing life with others mean I cannot pretend to be in rubber anywhere close to 24/7. But I do still aim for a life where being sealed in my rubber skin is my normal state and everything else is just minor and hopefully brief inconveniences.
Do I wear rubber under my street clothes? Sometimes I do and it can be a great comfort. The challenge comes because often it is not possible to predict the temperature of the environments I will encounter. For example I find that public transport involves an unpredictable range of temperatures and levels exertion and I recommend it should be avoided by the rubber encased person! I like to avoid the embarrassment of leaving puddles everywhere or getting heat stroke – both frequent companions in my early days.
If I can predict the conditions are “rubber person compatible” I generally always wear rubber under my clothes. As well as being potentially enjoyable it also feels far more tolerable and clean against skin that is acclimatised to a “rubber epidermis”. If directly against my skin, cotton (and the like) feels scratchy and, frankly, soggy and unsanitary in areas like the crotch, pits and feet. If you are reading this and not in rubber, you are probably unaware and acclimatised to the feeling of sitting in your slightly sweat moistened socks, underwear and T-shirts – but I have lost much of my tolerance to it and it feels as strange to me as wearing rubber gloves would do to most people.
I often read of people wearing rubber suits under their street clothes, even when they know they will be in close proximity of vanilla friends, family & colleagues. They seem to imply that they can go undetected – but I wonder. I believe that even a all-in-one suit with a T-Shirt top would be detectable at the neck (and probably sleeves) unless you were wearing very buttoned up high neck collar. So either these people are braver than me and don’t care if a bit of rubber is showing or they are fooling themselves and people around them are suspicious or aware that they are wearing a rubber under-layer.
For situation where it is important to minimise the chance of discovery and upsetting people, I opt for a one piece suit which has a vest top (no sleeves, neck entry, no zips) under my street clothes as it is generally undetectable.
When not wearing street clothes, I generally do wear a neck or shoulder entry suit. My preference is for a neck entry suit with attached feet as it avoid problems with leaking, but anything with a high neck line or sleeves can be difficult to disguise under street clothes. The one piece suit I am in today has a single waterproof zip across back of the shoulders and is a practical everyday solution for those who crave a totally hermetically sealed existence.
So, back to the main topic. Do I think that life in rubber limit what I would otherwise do? Inevitably to some degree it does, but maybe not to the extent it would for others. Do I think I would be better off not living in rubber? Clearly not or else I would not still be in this rubber skin of mine! Am I 100% confident I am making the right decisions? I am afraid not… I ask the question regularly, but keep making the same choice, but how can I know what it would be like to make the opposite choice? There would only be one sure way to find out and I guess I am not convinced I would want to risk trying a path without rubber.
Sealed
