Soles

I thought I’d show a few pictures of bare feet in regular use. These both come from the National Geographic.

The first one is one of the Photos of the Day.

Due to the effect of climate change, in 2007 Tropical Cyclone Aila hit Gabura Union, a coastal island of Bangladesh. Now people from this place are recovering from their wounds. Children are playing cricket in a salty, barren field.

The picture and caption are by Mohammad Rikabul Hasan.

[You can click on the pictures for larger versions.]

This so nicely shows how unnecessary shoes are. I also like seeing the sole of the one boy—we see how regular use builds up the soles to actually be useful.

The second photo appeared yesterday in their Daily Dozen.

Himba girls sitting near their home in northern Namibia. The girls are both teenagers, and they are sisters. They were watching over the family’s flock of goats while their parents were in town.

The photo and caption are by Susan McConnell.

Again, we can see how the soles have thickened to provide good protection.

This is particularly interesting to me because they are in a hot desert environment. My own soles can only take so much, but I suspect that’s because I spend most of my day building the calluses on my butt, not my soles. If I were out there all the time, I suspect my soles would do a lot better.

We also see this with Cody Lundin in Dual Survival. While I can manage some pretty hot surfaces, he spends most of his life with his survival classes barefoot and on more challenging surfaces. And it shows in the way his body (i.e., feet) responds, just as it the bodies (i.e., feet) of the girls above respond to local conditions.