I recently noted that the Columbus Dispatch hadn’t featured very many barefoot persons in their about-town photographs recently.
Naturally, as soon as I wrote that, another one appeared the very next day.
Time to relax | Just off work, Janette Dennison of Grove City rocks barefoot on a swing at the riverfront Downtown. Dennison was relaxing yesterday while waiting on her son.
[Caption by the Dispatch. Photo Credit: Chris Russell of the Dispatch.]
We can be pretty sure that she’s not a regular barefooter (they’re so rare). But even the perennially shod can’t help but notice how uncomfortable shoes, even “sensible” shoes, really are.
So when given the chance, for even a moment, off come the shoes.
This sometimes gives barefooters a bad, and unfair, rap. Feet that have been confined like that allow smelly bacteria and fungi to grow, so people start believing it’s the bare feet, not the shoes. And then they take it out on us, even though feet that are regularly barefoot don’t have such growths, and emit very little odor (no more than the rest of you).
I guess it’s best if, when the shoes come off, it be done outdoors. That way it’s not noticeable and we don’t get blamed.
They have swings for big people? Nice! The park swings here are narrower at the seat than at the top of the chains, so they are not a good fit for adult hips – very stingy of the park people.
And that does look like a very nice spot to take a break.
I was in a coffee shop yesterday and there was a five-year-old girl there screaming because her mum wanted to make her wear shoes. She came in barefoot in a pram and was promptly made to put them on. She takes them off and runs about and is made to put them back on. That is why we wear shoes and give up on going barefoot.