Thing 156 Barefoot for the Day

Alright, bad Fr Ted joke coming: Are those my feet? Classic for Irish people. Not so much for the foreigners. Sorry guys...

The Canuck's got an awesome saying, should be entered into some kind of quote book; Everything's better when you're barefoot. Now, I've a tendency to disagree with much of what the man says, not because he's wrong, but because I'm disagreeable. Contrary even. On the barefoot thing though... I think he might be right.

The only things that are not better when you're barefoot are; plugs (not plugged into sockets), boxes, doorframes (who knew they were so dangerous?), bits of things, I specifically mean sharp things that you know not from where they came, but they stick into your feet. Then there's roads and footpaths... Because I did make the silly mistake of taking my bare feet to the streets.

There's something of a conundrum to deal with in all of this too. Namely: I hate feet. I hate my feet and I hate your feet. I think we've covered this, but I'll re-cap. I've nothing against your feet personally, but I hate them because they're feet. How and ever... I love being barefoot. It's liberating. I love wearing sandals or flip flops around town, even in shitty weather. I love these things only because they give my feet freedom from the leather prisons that society tells me they have to wear.

I don't like shoes. Jeez... it's all about what I don't like today isn't it? Sorry...

The Talker kept telling me (along with The Frenchman that walking around in my bare feet would mean I'd catch diseases). I don't know why they associate barefootedness with hepatitis, but that's what they were threatening me with... What a horrendous threat. Thanks you bums.
I went to the petrol station. A woman carrying a small child was (by the most bizarre coincidence) scolding the child for forgetting to bring her shoes from where they'd come from. As she walked past me she was still giving out- "you can't go around without putting on your shoes. Look that fella's walking around without his shoes". Either she didn't realise that I could hear her and she was telling the child not to be like me, or she totally forgot that she was supposed to be giving out and just observed that my feet were bare.

I went to McDonald's for ice cream for me, Pony Boy and The Frenchman. The guy behind the counter spent his time laughing as he tried to talk to me. He was laughing because the people behind me in the queue were splitting themselves laughing. There was no point in denying it. When they asked why I'd no shoes on, I told them it was a religious thing. I happened to be wearing a hat at the time. So I told them I couldn't wear shoes and I had to cover my head. They didn't argue. It's rude to mock someone's crazy religion...

Sharp stones outside. Tiles inside the Crescent Shopping Centre... cool, relaxing tiles. With nice people who stared at me like one of the crazies who only come out at night. A guy driving passed the entrance shouted at me to put shoes on. I wanted to give out... but I couldn't.

He's right. Not wearing shoes is stupid. Sandals, okay, I'll give you those, not in the rain, because you'll catch your death of cold. But shoes, they're important. In retrospect... The Canuck is wrong... everything's not better when you're barefoot. It's nice, once in a while, but in moderation... I'm wearing my socks from now on...

A final thought... feet are like the marmite of body parts. Loved or hated. Nothing in between.