Yesterday I helped an old, ill man in my immediate neighborhood pruning his domestic vineyard , which was invading the trees nearby. i crossed the fence and started cutting. He was quite puzzled seeing me climbing the wire fence and walking around his messy yard in bare feet and repeatedly asked me how came that my feet didnt hurt with all those wood chips [and mixed crap of all sorts] on the ground. And think that this is a cultivator in retire, about 85 years old, from the south where going barefoot wasnt that uncommon 50 years ago. Then he told his wife, 'look, he's a ... chinese'. didnt ask him what the heck he meant because I bet he didnt know. chinese ? I've been called hippie, freak, german (!) various shades of the word idiot but this one was missing lol.
Little do people know these days, that going barefoot is the new luxury, an expression of ultimate freedom and independence from the slavery of social norms, expectations, and rules. We barefooters have risen above the judgement and lies to enjoy a pleasure shared by few in the throngs of Babylon.
I think a lot of peasants in southeast Asia do (or used to until recently) go barefoot in rural areas. In fact, it's those barefoot peasants in the rice paddies that gave barefooting a bad name (the parasites in the filthy water that the rice grows in). Perhaps that was this gentleman's perception... that only the Asians ("Chinese" in his mind) do gardening/farm work barefoot.
well my father was a peasant and he told me that they were accustomed to toss their shoes in April , to put'em back on in september-october. also there were some one with feet so tough that they didnt even bother to extract thorns or splinters from their soles. maybe it's just hype but...
