About A Man Named Jed

For as long as I can remember, I did not like wearing shoes. I take every opportunity during the summer to go barefoot. It seems more natural and is certainly more relaxing for my feet. I used to think that it was a throwback to my ridge runner relatives from Oklahoma and Arkansas but an article published by NPR (I know, what am I doing reading that liberal rag) says that wearing shoes is un-natural and causes humans to walk funny.

The author of the article says that wearing shoes is like putting a cast on the arm of a three year old and leaving it there forever. The arm would simply stop working after a while. Well, we have conditioned our feet to wear shoes and created a situation where we cannot do without them. He cites examples of barefoot rickshaw drivers that had perfectly healthy feet even though they ran shoeless through the streets.

Now, I do not advocate a shoeless world. That would be as kooky as embracing man made global warming as a singular vision of truth. The eskimos would have serious issues with frostbite without foot coverings and our modern society provides a considerable number of obstacles for a bare foot. We have all kinds of sharp edges and other unpleasant surfaces to walk over every day. I remember walking over the hot bubbling pavement as a child and doing the hop step to get off it before I baked my soles. And I would not mow the lawn barefoot for obvious reasons. But I do enjoy walking over the cool grass, letting my feet sink into the turf. I am sure glad summer is almost here.

Icool

Cobb