To be denudated is to be exposed, yes—but it is also to be authentic. When the "topsoil" of our vanity is gone, we find out what is actually capable of supporting weight. There is a terrifying beauty in a mountain peak that has been stripped of its trees; you can finally see the true shape of the stone.
To is to witness the slow, inevitable peeling away of the world until only the skeleton remains. It is the verb of the desert, the glacier, and the aging soul. denudate
In the natural world, it is a stripping of the skin. Water and wind conspire to remove the lush pretenses of the earth—the soil, the silt, and the greenery—leaving behind the raw, unyielding bedrock. It is a process of exhaustion, where the land is worked over until it has nothing left to give but its own foundation. To be denudated is to be exposed, yes—but