It just kinda amazes me that there is a need to discuss going barefoot. I mean, ya do or ya don't. I grew up a farm kid. At the end of the school year my shoes sat in the closet cause I seldom wore them EXCEPT when going to town. Why would anyone want to expose their feet to the filth of a city street or a store. I have more respect for my feet than that. I learned to avoid the chickenshit and cowpies, stickers and thorns. I learned how to run through a feild where the hay had been cut without having the stubble tear up my feet. Gravel and cinder driveways around home were easy places to toughen up feet. It just seems natural and common sense. At 64 I still go barefoot all the time. Sometime it cracks my kids up to see my bare footprints in the snow when I take out the stove ashes early in the morning before getting dressed. I guess maybe its a big deal if you didn't grow up barefoot...I don't know. When I go to Peru (often) I see jungle folks who have never worn shoes their entire life.Those are some gnarlyass feet, tough as hell and mishapen by our standards but perfectly adapted to the environment and terrain. I go barefoot in the jungle at times though I do keep an eye out for snakes, scorpions, spiders and other foul natured creatures. Perhaps my barefootin' years accounts for why I need to buy wide sizes in shoes too. Anybody else grow up barefoot and find this forum curious?
I find it curious, mostly because I know two girls from my area who like to walk around barefoot additionally, one is melodramatic to the point of irritating and the other one claims to she is insane. In not so many words, they are attention seekers.
After all that carrying on, you don't see your own point? YOU grew up barefoot and it's no big deal. Your kids, apparently, didn't, so, to use your own words, "it cracks them up" to see your footprints in the snow. YOU'RE used to it; they're NOT. Just because you don't want to "expose" your feet to city streets or stores doesn't mean other people don't want to. You are PART of the world, not ALL of it. But, yes, it IS amazing that a whole forum is needed for people to discuss the pleasures and problems of barefooting. But, given that people NEVER leave other alone, a forum is a nice thing to have for barefooters/would-be barefooters to voice their accomplishments/gripes. ANd even CALLING them "accomplishments" and "gripes" means that attention IS being paid to an act that, in many countries and cultures, is as routine and unmeditated as, um, going to the bathroom.
Some people get it and some don't. Some people like tea parties and some don't. Some people say tomahtoes and some people say toMAtoes. Let's call the whole thing off.
Most of my 7 kids went/go barefoot when they feel like it. It cracks them up to see my fat size 12 prints in the snow because it looks funny to them in winter... I have figured out a long time ago that I am only a speck in the universe and not all of it.
You are probably way more than a speck in some peoples universes. And, yeh when i get the paper or dump garbage in the snow I wonder what the mailman is thinking about the foot prints.
I'd like to see how commited to being barefoot most people would be if they lived in Canada. 6-7 months out of the year you'd get sick or cold if you went outside barefoot.
To me, barefooting in the city, stores, woods, parking lots, etc. is all the same. Just as it would be to a shod person. If you barefoot on hot pavement your soles will toughen to adapt to the environment. It's natural.
I live in NE USA and the same weather applies to an extent. 6 months is too cold, but the other months are fine so I get over the winter part as far as barefooting goes. I do not get over being cold and dealing with snow in general though.
well since barefooters have issues that shod people haven't , this is a forum in which we can exchange experiences. the fact that often the topic revolves around the reactions of shod people is not our fault. if barefooting was an accepted lifestyle, this forum would be a hell of a lot slimmer . dig it?
On the contrary, I suspect that if it was an accepted lifestyle, this forum would be a *lot* fatter. Currently it's really very quiet.
Do you really think that it is a lifestyle that is not accepted? I love to go barefoot but do not all the time as I do not wish to those times. There are places and situations that I do not go barefoot and they in general tend to be just common sense situations. When I am wiggling my piggies bare, I have never once had anyone make a comment.
Perhaps "accepted" is the wrong word. Whilst most people will tolerate/ignore it, in the parts of the world which this forum is mostly based round, for whatever reason, it is not popularly viewed as a "normal" thing to do, in many situations which your typical barefooter here would be. Either way, I would postulate that the amount of traffic in a forum section like this more or less scales with the number of people interested.
I get what you're saying totally. For me it's like vegetarianism. At least that has a bit more to discuss, but really they're tired out old things like "how do I get protein?" and "is eating animals natural?" that every adult has heard or read hundreds of times already and could have already made a decision about by now. You either eat meat or don't. Wear shoes or don't. But it's not like these are massvely confusing issues that need a lot of discussion. Well not in my eyes anyway. What can you say about not wearing shoes? Still some people obviously benefit from these boards or they wouldn't go in them.
^^ Yep, true all and I guess I just wondered what fasinated people so much about such a simple choice...didn't really want to cause any friction....anyway got some interesting responses.
Where i live it's a fairly constant 30C most all year round, everyone walks around bere footed or in a pair of flip flops.....i don't see anything special about being bare footed. Just watch out for broken glass and don't walk on the hot road!
Sometimes its a battle just to be able to go barefoot when I want to. Yes, such a simple thing but there have been times I've felt ostracized for it, so thats where a forum like this can help. I wish barefooting was just like many other clothing choices; wear a belt or not, a hat or not, gloves or not, short pants or short sleeves or not, bare feet or not. What difference should it make to anyone else!
