Barefoot

I’ve always loved going barefoot, and I’ve been teased about it throughout my life. That teasing has been good-natured. I can’t say the same for much of the rest of the teasing, from family during my childhood. But this is about going barefoot.

My undergraduate university didn’t have a shoe policy when I was a student, hard to believe as that may be. I learned that when I was pregnant with my daughter, in my advisor’s office when I made a joke about redefining barefoot and pregnant on my own terms. He told me there was no policy, and I don’t think I wore shoes to class again unless weather dictated a necessity for them.

My cousin from the Chicago area was surprised when I took off my sandals as soon as our feet hit the grass at the Par 3 one year. I asked him why in the world I would want shoes between my feet and the ground on the best-tended plot of land I knew of. He admitted that I had a point, but he kept his shoes on.

In my twenties, I was always taking my shoes off in the bar (in my thirties, random pieces of glass would occasionally work their way out)—I do everything better barefoot, from throwing darts and shooting pool to dancing. The difference in my ability when my feet are in prison is staggering, especially on the dance floor.

I now have to function in the world with my feet ensconced, but I don’t like it. Until boot season, it’s sandals for me, heels and toes breathing the air instead of suffocating in a leather box. If you’re wondering where I indulge my leather accessory desires, it’s handbags. I would rather shop for a bag than a pair if shoes every time the choice is mine to make.

That said, I know what a minority I’m in, that among women, shoes are expected to be coveted and drooled over, and I hope that everyone who loves shoes has as many pairs as they desire (and recommend visiting Tops for Shoes in Asheville, NC—a three-story, entire city block shoe emporium). I’ll leave that to others; I prefer being footloose.

There’s an additional benefit to going barefoot, besides the freedom and connection to the earth, and that’s the ability to easily try others’ shoes on for size and see how they fit without having to remove something or force one shoe inside another, which usually doesn’t work out well for either shoe, much less the foot inside them.