Barefoot Journals
Click to go to specific date:
[2008-11-09] November run
[2008-11-10]
[2008-11-14] Kids
[2008-11-20] First Snow
[2008-11-21] First Real Snow
[2008-11-27] Less of a Dream
[2008-12-07]
[2009-01-12]
[2009-01-25]
[2009-03-24] Finally
[2009-04-02] Spring is so here
[2009-04-04] “Barefoot! Cruel!”
[2009-04-14]
[2009-06-05] First outdoors run
This is a continuation of the Bare Feet entry, and could be seen as a “sub-blog”. It’s not perfect, but it’s the best I can do with my seriously lacking web-skillz.
Without completely cluttering up the blog with posts about my barefoot life-style, I thought I would simply add notes of relevance to this one post instead as time goes by. Yes, it won’t probably tickle blog listings and give me high ratings and score or whatever, but… well, that’s just not my cup of tea really.
In this post, I will most probably be praising how freaking good it feels to be barefoot, from day to day, as much as I can. And of course, reflections about it, links and examples to explain what I mean, and hopefully it will plant a little bit of curiosity in you so that you may try a barefoot life style yourself. Or simply, to just take your shoes off from time to time and just live a little more than usual. And if you do, give me a comment or two telling me about it, or perhaps join the SBL if you have questions!
[2008-11-09] November run
Yes, it’s November, and although no snow has yet set on the ground, we have had the first snowfall here in Sweden (where I live, at least). It is cold, but as I’ve noticed, the more I dress the more I feel the cold, to a limit. The body is really good at adapting its temperature, if you let it. So, a vest and pants that go down a little bit past the knees, leaving arms, hands, legs and feet bare. It does feel a bit cold at first, but I’ve learned that given just a few minutes, I don’t feel cold anymore. Even today, as it was quite wet on the ground (it’s not warm enough for the water on the ground to vaporize it seems), I reached a point fairly quickly when I didn’t “feel” anything in perticular. Don’t mistake that as “numb” - I was certainly not numb anywhere - the temperature just didn’t bother me.
This is the latest into the fall/winter I’ve ever been barefooting, I think. Usually, I chicken out a while earlier, start to dress more, and subsequently fool myself that it is colder “than it has to be”. This is a fact that many people has really much trouble grasping - that the more clothes you wear, the more of your body you cover up… the more you will feel cold on the parts of the body that isn’t covered. Why? Because you externally heat your body up with clothes, so that the body doesn’t have to. Thus, your hands/face (for example) which is part of your body (duh) aren’t internally heated up, and gets colder. If you instead wore moderate amounts of clothes and let your body adapt internally, you will be less cold overall. It is not really rocket science, but it does to against classic assumptions that “more support is better”.
Because that is a common misconception… that we need external support. Shoes, or even clothes. I won’t go walking around naked (again… I did from time to time back in a certain school… but that’s an entirely different story) - that’s just not my thing really. We forget that our bodies have evolved during millions of years to cope and adapt to a whole range of environments. Our feet, for example, are excellent the way they are, and can easily traverse most natural environments, and definately our man-made day-to-day environments such as concrete, stairs, floors, and whatever. Don’t believe in evolution, but instead of a God? Perhaps a God who made us humans in his image…? No offense, and I’m not trying to troll at all, but if you think we need shoes to “support” that creation, then you are kind of calling God imperfect. Sure, humans do a lot of stupid things, but those things are in the mind.
By the way, as I’ve mentioned before, shoes are the number one cause of foot problems (to which I could dig up sources, if needed, but I suggest you go to the SBL-site mentioned later). They are not support, they deform our feet and cause us to walk incorrectly, which in turn can cause back pains, leg pains, and well… foot pains, of course. Been there, and everytime I walk (or RUN!) barefoot, those problems seem lightyears away.
Anyway; went to purchase pizza today. But… the usual pizzeria was closed so we had to walk somewhere else. I partly felt “blast” but mostly I was happy to get to walk further. I had adapted to the temperature pretty well and liked walking, feeling the new sensation of cold and wet leaves. Not the fluffy kind in early fall, but the more mushy trampled half-goo that they have turned in today. I just love it.
Let’s see how far into the winter I can get with this; I’m sure it comes a date when it’s just too cold. I’m not stupid - I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t feel comfortable with it, and so far, I am comfortable with it. I reckon it will take a lot of time, however, before I get to “snow footing” as others of the SBL (Society for Barefoot Living) call it. I know that, just like walking on frying hot pavement in the summer (which I’m used to by now - it takes a bit of getting used to), you can become comfortable with walking barefoot in snow. It’s just something to get used to. Look at animals, they do it all the time, and they manage fine - unless of course it’s too cold. Don’t forget that snow isn’t just one temperature - it’s frozen water, which could be at 0 degrees Celcius and down. The air doesn’t have to be 0 degrees, the sun might be in the sky heating you up, and so on, helping your body adapt externally while just moving about, walking, helps your body keep warm internally. Bla bla bla.
The thing is, I often have dreams about walking barefoot in snow, and when I do it feels like… nothing ni perticular, just like today. It just feels cool to the skin, but I’m not too cold. A childish dream perhaps, but then perhaps I am childish. It is one part of me that won’t go down without a good fight.
Oh, and I also dug up my original two letters to our local gym here. I asked the gym owners if it was Ok to train barefoot, and got a affirmative response - on two different occurances, one year inbetween. I’ll take them with me when I start training again, which I hope I will do soon. A few days back, when I went to meet some friends at a diner, I couldn’t help but run half of the stretch. I hate running - usually - because of the shoes I wore in the past (and don’t start blabbering about “maybe you had the wrong kind of shoes…” when I know perfectly superior alternative to any shoes… >_>) but this time, it just… it felt like nothing! Again, it just didn’t feel anything in perticular. Just… natural. Like it was the most obvious thing in the world. With shoes, it would in a few moments feel like the bones in my ankles had broken off and the sharp ends of the bones where trying to make their way out of my heels, and the same with the bones in my toes. A remarkably horrible pain. A pain I have never felt (take a guess) without shoes.
Before I and my hubby moved to our new appartment back in spring, we both went to the gym two times a week. After the move we stopped going - I was personally spent after work from both thinking about the move and everything that had to be done, and thinking about work which was pretty hectic at the time. But before that, when we did go to the gym, I had just fallen in love with the treadmill. It was the first time I had ran since way back in high-school gym class, back when I wore shoes all the time like everybody else.
Here’s a horribly ugly poll gadget!
[2008-11-10]
Today was less active than most days, it has been really rainy and windy and for a while there was even hail falling. I wouldn’t mind going out for a walk, but I simply have not got suitable clothes for excessive rain.
However, in the evening the rain had stopped, and I was just out with my hubby to the local mini store to buy some ingredients for tonight’s dinner. As I’ve just started to shave all my hair off of my head - I simply look better that way - I felt the need for a beanie (cap), but other than that I had the usual just-below-the-knee shorts, a vest and t-shirt.
I’m starting to get a bit puzzled looks from passing people (from being barefoot, that is), but I just hope they will get used to me soon. Some have, I know. I have no problem that people mention me to their friends and such - the important part is that regardless of how goofy they make me sound behind my back, they get to see a rather bright and friendly fellow when they meet me. But again, would I care that deeply of what strangers think of me, I would probably wear shoes.
So how was the walk? A bit cold at first, as expected, but after just a little bit I felt warm instead. And no, not frostbite-ish warm, not numb, I just felt that my body (core, legs, feet) were warm, and the outside was cold. And even though the outside was cold, my body’s warmth won the battle. I’m positive about this year, I have gone much farther than any other year, and… well, it may sound like a cliché, but if you only give an honest attempt at something, you will usually succeed. But then you have to give an honest attempt - which means that you can’t just quit after the first 30 seconds. I guess that if you always expect instant results, then you will never get far in life.
[2008-11-14] Kids
Today me and my mate took a walk across town to a larger grocery store to get some various foods and stuff that we only buy there. There are closer stores with lower prices generally, but the quality is higher across town and when buying meat and such you get to know more clearly where the meat comes from, and so on. A little more expensive, but I wish to think that I’m buying meat that comes from animals that were treated as well as possibly before their completely unconsenting death.
Anyway, yesterday it was rather sunny actually, and I took a short walk then as well later on during the evening. The sky was clear from clouds and it was dark, of course, and really cold. The grass had turned frosty in places even, which was a crispy feeling to walk on. When there are no clouds, it is usually a lot colder than when it is cloudy, which isn’t really that suprising.
Today it was cloudy and it had rained a lot just before we went out. I did bring my sandals and an extra jacket in a bag with me, but even though the ground was wet all over with puddles, I didn’t need them. It felt… cool at first, but then I got to the state where it didn’t feel anything in perticular - just good. Oh, and squishy piles of wet cold leaves… It’s almost better than mud.
When we were waiting in the counter line, a little kid at 3-4 in the other line said 3 times to her father/elder brother that “He has no shoes”. After the third time, she went a little more whispering, “…he’s not allowed to go without shoes out here!” to which her father/brother smiled at her and nodded… I was looking at him at the time, and formed “can too” with my mouth while smiling and nodding, to which he kind of just laughed back. No big deal. The most comments I have gotten are kids, nowadays, who seem overly fascinated and who just has to tell their parents (or me) that I’m not allowed barefoot in the store, to which I calmly just smile at them and tell that that who ever told them that is wrong. There is no such law, and there never will be either, as there really is no reason for it.
It was a good walk. Though, I hadn’t eaten yet, so just before entering the store I was quite overwhelmed with… I don’t know, depressive thoughts. I’m usually not very depressed. Sure, I may think a bit “too much” sometimes, but I’m usually strong. Right then, I just felt that all my defenses dropped. It was horrible, but while in the store I just relaxed, thought that I just had to eat something, and tried to ignore the feelings. It worked, we bought a yoghurt to share, and after we had consumed it outside the store I started feeling well again. Little compares to the dread that comes from not eating properly. When you have no energy, you have no physical nor mental strength to do anything.
A lot of looks today though, but I sense them rather quickly and direct some well placed stare-backs at the people who stare at me. It usually makes them come back to reality when they see I’m looking at them with a questioning look after they’re done staring at my feet. Bleah. And it’s usually older people that do stare (but their comments are usually rather positive or just curious). I think that the younger generations may be a bit too politically correct to really show that they notice anything (which I like, I’m not walking barefoot for reactions). Then we have the real young generations that just bark out everything without thinking first.
And for those who may be wondering… I just washed my feet off with the shower for a few seconds, rubbed lightly with my hands to get all dirt off, and after that my feet are perfectly fine. No wounds, not hurt, not dented, not worn out. My soles are thicker than shod people’s, but that’s not visible. You will only feel that the skin is not as soft as shod people’s soles, but not hard and dry either, only thicker and sturdier. My heels are a little rough around the edges, but that’s nothing a little filing/sand-paper can’t fix in 5 minutes. But how is it possible?! You must be super human! No, I’m just doing what my feet were made for. Walking. Quite cool isn’t it? They are the only “footwear” you will ever have that gets stronger and sturdier and better the more you use them 
[2008-11-20] First Snow
Not much snow fell today, but enough to make the edges on the sidewalk and grass a little white. I went for a walk to the local store to buy some stuff for dinner, and took my sandals with me just in case. I did put them on after a while, it did feel a bit too cold at a time, but they went off almost the entire way back. So, there was some snowfooting, and I got to feel the icy crust of puddles, and so on. Wonderful. Cold, but certainly something I can get used to. I mean, my blood circulation is really bad, and I don’t complain. Also, I weigh over 100 kilos, which is pretty much pressure against the ground on one foot. Imagine losing a few kilos and getting that blood circulation up!
I’ll do like last year - bring my sandals everywhere and put them on if needed, otherwise go without. Oh and the icey puddles… they were not as cold as the ground.
If anyone could be as kind as to link me some personal photos of you barefooting in snow, or leaving foot prints in snow etc, then please be my guest! I’m thinking of perhaps forcing my hubby to bring the camera next time we go out for a walk so that he can take some pictures ^^
Warning: The soles will be very uninterestingly clean though.
[2008-11-21] First Real Snow
Today it started snowing more to the point where the ground wasn’t just white in the corners, but totally covered with a thin layer of snow. I put on more clothes than normal this time, it has gotten a good bit colder now. I took my sandals with me, because they are the only shoes I have at the moment (I had like 6 pairs that I had to discard in the beginning of the year because… well, they were just too uncomfortable). The sandals are perfect, really, and I’m not cold one bit even in snow, unless it’s a snow storm.
But as usual I had them in my hand at first, stepped out of the house, and started walking to a friend’s place. It felt less cold than I had expected, actually. Less cold than the day before when the snow hadn’t fallen yet. The difference this time was that yesterday it was a layer of ice - and today it was a fluffy layer of snow. It was probably less cold now than yesterday, just due to that.
I went walking barefoot in the snow for one or two hundred meters, before finally putting the sandals on. It just got a bit too cold, and I don’t want to push it too far in the beginning. When I arrived at my friend’s place, I took a quick look at my soles which were clean apart from a dark stain of some sort. I tried to scrape it off, and didn’t succeed, and I figured “shit, is this some sort of frost bite thing?” and got kind of scared. It didn’t hurt or anything, so I kept walking in my sandals with my friend to some stores down town.
On my way home, my prints were still quite visible among the prints of high-heel shoes and other tools of torture. Anyway, I got up and did the usual wash up… and realized that I had stepped in something oily -_- It vanished with just water and soap. I was scared at first, because I thought I had suffered some cold-related issue, but no. My feet are just fine. I never stop being suprised over how much myths we have learned, about our bodies having to have “support” all the time. It’s really stupid.
[2008-11-27] Less of a Dream
Tonight around 2 am I went down to the bottom floor to check if I had gotten any mail. I hadn’t, so I thought that I would just get a little fresh air and went outside for a bit. The snow that was about 10cm high had almost completely thawed over the day, but there was still some snow in the edges. It was cool in the air, but not cold, and I even tried walking around in the thawing piles of snow - and to my suprise, it felt almost like in my dreams where I would walk in snow without feeling anything in perticular. It was just… snow. Squeezy-crunchy-wet and cool. Completely awesome.
Two days back when it was snowing like crazy, I put on shoes for the first time in ages. I should have taken my sandals though - it wasn’t as cold as it looked. My feet started hurting pretty fast, and my posture was completely suck. I kept leaning forward or something, and while it didn’t look like it, it felt like I was the hunchback of Notredame or something. And apart from the shafings and heat and that my feet were a little too wide for the shoes… it felt just awful. Horrible. Not worth it by a long shot.
Today when my hubby wakes up we are going to take a walk to the store and look around some. Not to buy anything in perticular, just to get out and walk a little and look around and do something other than sitting in front of the computer or TV all day.
[2008-12-07]
A rather wet and non-windy day today, and I and my hubby went to get some take-out food. Went barefoot there, then had my sandals on for the way back as I had too much stuff to carry mostly. It wasn’t too cold. I’m a bit annoyed by the sand and stuff they put on some of the roads to make it less slippery during winter season. I have gotten more resistant to that though, but I preferred to walk in the grass when I could anyway. Cool and soft and awesome. Vest, so I had bare arms and my shorts that end somewhere between the knee and ankle, and I didn’t feel cold one bit. Nice weather indeed. So, december then! I know it wasn’t a particularly long walk, but I also know that the farther I walk the more I adapt to the temperature so if I would have taken a longer walk, I would probably have had no problems with it. I just hope today will be another mild day.
[2009-01-12] Happy New Year
A bit late perhaps, but since I had no really barefoot related to write about before now I say it now instead. So, happy new year! Apart from having used sandals all winter so far, stepping out of them from time to time just to feel the ground or taking them off and putting them in the grocery carrier while in the stores now and then, I have had little out-of-apartment barefooting done. Not strange, because we hit a real crazy “peak” in cold for a while. It was so crazy that the pond outside froze so fast one day that when the evening came, a whole bunch of people went out for some ice-skiing. It held for a time, now the weather has gotten a lot warmer. It was around 3 Celcius today, I think, for instance - which is more or less what I can take without too much problem. I didn’t go barefoot though, I was in a crazy hurry to the store and I really don’t like all the gravel on the roads. Honestly - it’s really uncomfortable, even for me, especially when it’s cold too. I’m just not used to gravel yet.
Anyhow, okay, I remember a few times I’ve gone out with the garbage in the snow to the dumpster and back. Lovely feeling, really. And oh, our balcony windows got really frosty on the insides as well, so naturally I couldn’t resist… >_>
Melted prints on frosty glass.
Childish? Yeah, perhaps, I don’t care, hehe. Go to Barefoot Spirit to find a similar wallpaper.
I had one of those “sigh” moments two days back as I had just bought a pizza and was waiting for a friend to buy something in a nearby corner store. I was standing outside his place, had opened my jacket, taken off my cap and sandals, because it was just not cold at all. I was slowly feeling the ground, a sandy and somewhat muddy parking area with a little bit of ice, while looking up, watching the stars.
We all have (or, well all should have) little moments in our lives that we just grab and enjoy to the fullest. For some, it’s that first inhale of cancerous fumes in the morning, for some it’s that glass of whiskey in the evening after work. For others, it’s coming home from working at a day care center or other similarly noisy industry facility, closing the door, kicking back in the couch, and just… silence. Of course, many of us have many of these moments when we just stop and forget everything even for a brief moment and just… let ourselves feel good. Shamelessly, awesomely, freakishly and utterly good. For me, that can be a moment like that - standing around, with no worries, a little hungry but with food in hand, waiting for a friend, and just feeling the ground for a bit with my feet after a long while of numbing them with shoes.
Why don’t you, if you’re one of those “shoddies”, make this at least one of your small such moments? Next summer, in a cool summer rain, put on a t-shirt and a pair of shorts and take a walk. You won’t get a cold from it, you won’t die. Make sure it’s calm and quiet around you, perhaps, if you can. Go and stand on the grass, or the mud. Or, in a puddle. You won’t get sick from it, or die; I and billions of others can promise you that. Just listen to the rain drops hit your ears and feel the ground with your toes. Try putting your weight differently, stand on the balls of your feet. Take a few steps, play a little. Get wet. Live a little differently for just a few minutes. Try writing something in the mud. Grab a twig or a rock.
Afterwards, you can just splash yourself clean in a puddle, or just walk mud off in the grass. Then again, that will most probably get your paws rather grassy. But, who cares but the door carpet, no? In any case - to get clean, water will do. Only really silly people think that disinfectant suddently is necessary, when they otherwise walk around in the same shoes for days (or… years) without ever even washing them.
I must admit, I would love to see more people barefoot, I do. But I wouldn’t try to make anyone do it, it’s a choice for everyone to make, but I will say what I think if I’m asked. It is a bit unfair, however… since the “shoe-mania” (industry, advertisements, myths) get to actively spread its crap and shove it in people’s faces, and obviously get their “points” across. And yeah, sure, I have suggested to people to try going barefoot those 100 meters to the store in the summer, just to try it out, as I do here. Two close friends have said “hey, this is nice” and are both putting their shoes on the shelf whole days or weeks from time to time. Cool.
And, hehe, yeah. It seems a bit retarded if one were to go around militantly yelling “Hey, you s-o-b, you should go barefoot because it feels so damn good, you retard shoe wearer!”
[2009-01-25] Mini update
I haven’t been barefooting much really. I did get the idea that I would “walk in” my new standard shoes that I bought a few weeks back. I’m only going to use them when I really “have” to, for example for work interviews and similar. It was fine in the beginning, but after a short while the far too familiar sensation came back… where the bones in my legs felt like they had transformed into spears, stabbing the insides of my legs, feet, knees. Usually, before I started barefooting a lot, it took longer before it hurt - I was more used to it.
“You see now? You should wear shoes more often so you won’t get hurt from them!”
What, are you daft?
Anyway, the weather was warmer than usual too, so needless to say I kind of regretted my choice. Using my sandals I don’t feel pain at all as much as with normal shoes. I do feel pain if I have to walk real fast with sandals though. They are comfortable and all, but the strap that keeps them on the foot also keeps me from bending the foot as much as I need to which means I tend to get tired in those perticular muscles more than usual. After the day with my new shoes, I had muscle aches in the weirdest of places for two days.
What I really meant to write in this update was a little pointer towards my very close friend Syntium’s blog. She has recently started trying out a more barefoot lifestyle herself, and from time to time she writes about her experiences. Read about her own barefoot story here.
Come to think of it; I have so far rubbed off on two people who have added some carefree barefooting to their lives. I’m not talking about barefoot just at the beach, but in general, when they feel like it - down town, driving, biking, etc. It seems that many that I meet want to be barefoot much more often, but some voice in the back of their head say “I can’t“.
[2009-03-24] Finally
We had almost no clouds for a few days now, and during that time the snow vanished and the ground became rather dry. Grit, or gravel, or whatever it’s called was still everywhere, but it seems I’ve gotten used to that enough not to get bothered by it much - even though I prefer the gravel-less spots of course. But anyway; this was enough for me to have 2 days in a row of barepawed walks. First to and in one store to buy food stuffs, and the other day to and in a tech-gadget-store called MediaMarkt. I love that place, even though it’s on the other side of town. The price and amount of options there is just too good, and I figure that if I can get a long walk AND low prices, then it’s only a win/win really. I get both an exercise and a good price.
I kind of WANT to try to express how fraking awesome it feels to walk barefoot outside, and in stores, and everywhere really. While walking, and afterwards. I could FEEL the road and gravel and soft carpet still echoing for days afterwards. But - I’ll spare you a rant about that this time.
Now, it’s freezing cold, again, and lots of snow everywhere. Though, I see that the sun is out a bit today, and patches of snow has started to melt again… and I hear that next week it’s apparently going to be even warmer than the other day. I’m so looking forward to that. It’s not just about not having to put on shoes, really, it’s about all the clothes. I can have a vest instead of a long-sleeved jacket, I can take off the ends of my pant legs and turn them into long shorts. I can have lighter clothes in general. To feel the wind and sun on my skin, to feel a little bit more alive. Deep? Really? Is it really that odd to want to be able to use the senses more? It’s like saying that you are “deep” if you want to stop using shades all year long, just because you like the fact that you can see more without them. Some call it “spiritual” or “hippie”, I’d just plainly call it natural. But that’s me. Really, to be YOU shouldn’t be anything other than being natural. Any ADDITION to what you are, however, is another question.
But I suppose that most people see that the ideal in our society is “natural” and that any abberation from this norm - even if it means to subtract a part from the construct that is the ideal of our society - is a form of addition.
Just take the example of a foreigner coming to your neighborhood. He might have a whole different culture and life style, different views and everything. If you aren’t open to the fact that there are other ideals based on entirely different perspectives and origins than your own, then you will probably see that man’s differences - both new elements and elements that contradict your own ideal - as additions to your ideal. When, in fact, both your ideals - your ways of being YOU - are all constructs, additions upon a natural human state which you both pretty much share.
Meaning, if you were both to shed all the additions to your natural state, all the constructs added upon you as a human being, you were to end up pretty much at the same spot. No real language, no clothes, no social system, and no need for it. You would have rudimentary primitive drive and instinct, naturally. A thinking and analytic mind, of course, as that is simply genetic.
It is a bit interesting how quick one deems someone who is slightly “off”, concerning our society’s ideal, to be weird and sometimes crazy. Do you think that the position you have in society is solid ground? A stable base? A natural origin, something that the world would fall back to if everything were to get chaotic for a while? Hardly. Your job, your house, your social contacts, your money - all just constructs. Your dreams? All just constructs based on constructs. Our lives are really more like sky-scrapes. Somewhere down there is the truth about a natural state, but we are living up here, in a city where most sky scrapes look and work the same. Some have different color, different windows, different contents - but the structure is more or less the same. In your immediate society, that is. And the sky scrapes work for you, too!
This foreign man though, would look like something entirely different. Perhaps round, perhaps with stairs instead of elevators, perhaps no windows at the bottom, but an observatory and zoo at the top. Maybe you would have to fly to even get IN to the building. I’m speaking strictly metaphores here though. The point is, BOTH you and him are living highly constructed lives, that depend on constructed ideals and systems. They are additions. It all is. They are all constructs, like sky scrapes.
Constructs that work for you, constructs that work well together with other similar constructs - but don’t let this fool you into thinking that your construct is the only right one. Don’t let it fool you into thinking that just because it works perfectly for you, it is THE perfect solution for everyone, everywhere. That it is the natural state which things more or less default to, falls back onto. That anything different from your ideal, your society, are additions to this “natural state”… because your ideal isn’t the natural state, isn’t anything that the world will default to, isn’t anything that the world will automatically fall back onto.
There is a natural state, and that is a world with no constructs - mental or physical. It’s not really that hard to understand though… I mean, it’s all in the word. Construct. It’s constructed. It is created, added to the world’s natural basic state. It’s in our nature, however, to create these constructs - so everything we do is natural really - but it’s like, again, a sky scraper. It’s a natural effect of us being able to think, reason, communicate. But if the world is shaken, the sky scraper will crumble - all constructs will fall down and break, and leave… yeah.
Enough ranting the same thing over and over.
Note: I am NOT trying to put any “right” or “wrong” value into the word “natural”. Natural is naturally occuring. Everything that IS is natural. Coffee is natural. Candy is natural. Even murder is natural. I am NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT saying that natural means “right” or “wrong”.
[2009-04-02] Spring is so here
Last week this time, thick jacket, cap, long pants, shoes, walking through the snow. Today, shorts and t-shirt. I kid you not. I’m generally in a rather gloomy mood nowadays due to many things… most of which has to do with lack of work (or rather, lack of income). It’s not really a depression, just a cold understanding of the facts.
And I’m still not feeling like it’s last day of 1999. But, taking a long walk outside to two stores, looking at stuff for the appartment with my mate and then doing some grocery shopping in t-shirt (it was windy as usual here but never a moment where I thought it was chilly at all), shorts (gah!) and barefoot, through wet still cold grass, warm asphalt, gravel, mud, floors, carpets… I don’t know. It’s a slight taste of that feeling when you’ve been out a whole summer’s day and are sitting at home finally in the evening with a hot cup of chocolate and a cheese sandwich in your hand.
It’s like a little piece of having lived a remarkably carefree day, and knowing it’s far from the last one, but at the same time nothing other than that cup of chocolate and that sandwich matters, and you sit there in peace and calm and can almost hear the echo of the day in your entire tired body.
[2009-04-04] “Barefoot! Cruel!”
Sunny today too, as yesterday. I and my hubby went for a trip to the store to buy stuffs for tonights dinner. T-shirt and shorts. Yeah, I know, short sentences today… I’m just a bit spent in my head. In a good way.
Passing the train/bus center, a few teenagers were relaxing by a window, one of which yelled “Barfota! Grymt!” to me, which literally means “Barefoot! Cruel!” in English. …ok, the correct translation is “Barefoot! Awesome!”
More people commented I think, to their friends, but from all I could see and hear from people’s reactions was that they found it positive.
Icecream… candy. Vegetarian tortillas today. The sun lights up our balcony, the air is warm. A hubby in the sofa, kicking ass in Street Fighter 4 on the xbox 360.
Life’s good! If only I could secure our economy somehow soon. Sigh…
[2009-04-14]
Ah, I (don’t) love how WYSIWYG wordpress is (not). Anyway. Google it.
This will probably be the last entry in a good while, I think, because as long as winter isn’t going to make a quick visit again before summer, I’m ditching my shoes for a few months. I’ve already spent a week only barefoot, and as the grit and gravel is being brushed off of the roads and as it just becomes warmer and warmer, I don’t see me putting my sandals on anytime soon. Unless it gets too hot which it can sometimes on asphalt. And actually, I’m referring to the brighter older asphalt patches. One would think that the black and new ones would be worse, but I’ve had most problems with the bright ones. I don’t know how to explain that, it might have been a fluke or something though.
And unless my short summer job employer has something against me working barefoot… while teaching kids at 12-16 how to make games for a week. Somehow, I’m pretty confident that I can talk myself past that obstacle if at all needed.
Also, I’m so tired of having to mess with the html every time I add something here, and it’s becoming quite long as well and a bore to read.
Have a nice spring!
[2009-06-05] First outdoors run
I haven’t written in a while, which as mentioned means nothing more than I haven’t got anything of interest to say, really. I’m always barefoot nowadays.
Over the years I’ve started to really dislike the expressions we have for “being barefoot”. Our languages are built with shoes as a norm, which for me is totally absurd. I won’t go into detail in that, again, but still - it’s called “barefoot”. Being without gloves however, isn’t called barehanded. You would never hear “I was out in the garden barehanded”, or “I went grocery shopping barehanded”.
Yet, what is the difference? Our hands are made to be used without added help - they have been perfected during the course of millions of years. As have the rest of our bodies - each and every part. Some parts are more important than others from an evolutionary standpoint, such as our hands and arms, legs and feet, our senses of touch and smell and sight and sound, and so on. They help us quickly interact with the surroundings and move and fend off or flee from anything that might otherwise kill us.
Long ago, I de-conditioned myself from thinking of shoes as the norm. I have always seen humans as just any other being on Earth, in that we have bodies, we are mammals, and we work fundamentally in the same ways as animals. Unraveling our social constructs we can clearly see that in the end, we do just what every other animal does. We are a natural part of the eco-system on Earth, we eat, we breed, we want to survive, we want to protect our own kin, we want to belong with a flock, and so on. We have just added a couple of layers of stuff onto all that, but it all ends in relatively simple needs. And in my eyes, I’m certainly not trying to make humans “smaller” by saying this - on the contrary really.
It seems we see ourselves as weak, in need of support, that the “nature” out there is too harsh for us, that unless we shield ourselves from the outside we will get sick and die. I don’t - I see us as a part of the same nature that most of us seem so afraid of, we didn’t just “arrive” a few days ago into this “unforgiving world” - we have been along this same ride as all the other species of Earth from the very beginning. Hundreds of thousands of years, millions of years, through far greater dangers and disasters than there are now. We got kicked down, but quickly stood up, over and over again. We got chased by bears, but outran and outclimbed them. For many many thousands of years. Not because of deodorant and aspirin. Not because of gloves and a pair of Nike.
Yet… today, people really think that we need to be protected. That our feet need protection… against grass. And flat smooth asphalt.
For me, a foot is a foot. It’s not meant to be clothed under normal living circumstances. It is meant to be what’s holding us up from the ground. It has built-in protection for it, both superficial touch skin and mechanical shock dampening and weight distribution. For most of us, this means that we wouldn’t practically need shoes other than when the temperature is far below freezing. A foot is our “bare” skin against the ground. Just as our hands are our “bare” skin against the groceries in the store, against our toothbrush, against the keyboard. A foot isn’t just “the end of the leg”, some strange “lump” connected with a joint at the end of the leg - it’s one of the most mechanically advanced parts of our bodies. Springs to charge and discharge kinetic energy, a sole with the second greatest concentration of touch-receptors (our tongue apparently being the greatest) on our bodies, a sole that is “designed” to absorb shock, to resist piercing, to heal almost instantly if the rare occasion of damage does occur, toes to feel and test the ground automatically to make each and every step as safe as possible, toes to help push ourselves up when we take a step. Not to mention all of these parts in tandem, automatically, without our awareness more or less, work with our legs and backs and rest of the body to minimize shock, to keep balance, to feed our brains with inputs…
Just like the rest of the animals on Earth, who are in other ways equally perfected for their purpose. Shoe companies don’t perfect anything except their own budget. Put on shoes is like putting on gloves. No really - the next time you put on shoes because you think you “need” it - think of putting on gloves as well. You will survive probably, but… do you need gloves for grocery shopping? For playing outside? For climbing a tree? Hardly. You would just remove a lot of the flexibility and perfection in your hands, not to mention almost completely numb your sense of touch needed for optimal “performance” of your body.
I am fascinated in the body, sure. I’m fascinated in feet, mostly because it’s one of the things we seldom talk about. Not even in school. Sure, they mentioned the bones of the hand and feet once, perhaps. I remember one mention of it in class 1998, that we humans stand on the balls of our feet AND heels for balance. And… that’s it. Then, most of the “information” came from… *drumroll* …shoe marketing (until I started searching myself). Believing in everything shoe makers say is like believing cigarette companies say that cigarettes are good for your health and don’t cause cancer. They are both companies who more than anything want you to believe that you need their services. They don’t do it for you, they do it for their income.
I believe that the body is beautiful and awesome as it is “meant” to work. I put that in quotation marks because while I don’t believe in creationism, I do believe that our bodies have been shaped by evolution and that we have been perfected to perform certain tasks… such as walking, seeing, and so on. It’s much easier to say that our bodies are “designed” to do this and that, when I really mean that they have evolved, which is sort of a relatively blind randomness steered in the right direction by the “survival of the fittest”… so to speak.
A foot is a foot. It is not a foot once you put a shoe on it. A foot with a shoe is just like a hand with a glove. Just like our hand works best without support, so do our feet.
In other news; yeah! A friend dragged me out the other day to his jogging trail. Asphalt mostly, a bit of gravel, a bit of grass. I’m -soooo- not well-trained in any way… so I was panting like crazy after half the trail. Ah well, I’ll get better at it. And I noticed my stride, which was a bit different than when I had run on treadmills before. On treadmills, I landed pretty clearly with the balls of my feet first, almost not putting down my heel to the ground at all. Outdoors, I still put down the ball of the foot first, but very quickly thereafter I sort of “bounced” down with my heel and then up again. The impact was low (for one who weighs 100kg) and it didn’t hurt in my legs like in my old foot-glove-days.
Again, total baffleness towards people in general, that even on warm days put on shoes for the slightest shortest step outside their apartment doors. Like, why? Really, why? Live a little. And I’m not saying “live” in the “be crazy” way - I’m saying live as in live. Seriously. Put on gloves to shield yourself from life all the time, and by the time you are on your death bed with a since long messed up back and twisted leg bones, you will have “lived” an incomplete life.
As I mentioned, my bafflement all comes down to the question; how can people believe - after all these millions of years during which we have been strong and successful and resourceful and survived - that we suddently need support as if we were fragile porcelain figurines?
It’s actually really quite insulting, to me individually, to the history of humanity as a whole, not to mention to themselves.
Today, or tomorrow, I’ll go to the nearest voting office and put a vote for Piratpartiet (PP) for the EU-election. It is strange. We are, and I’m not kidding, moving towards a society where some people look at China with their censorship and dictatorship and say “hey, that’s not a bad idea”. No, honestly, people say that in interviews and on blogs. Those that are for mass surveillance. Last year, the grotesque FRA-law passed in Sweden, meaning that all (!) internet traffic in and out of Sweden should be copied and analyzed by the government, without our consent or knowing. For really vaguely defined purposes. But, according to themselves, one use of it is to sell the information to other nations. For our protection. Now, another bunch of laws are in the works that will make it possible for the police to wiretap phone and internet of anyone as they wish, without suspicion of crime. And the list goes on.
No. I live in a country with freedom of speech and where I should have a right for privacy, regardless if I’m clean like an angel or not. I should be able to travel without knowing that somewhere, someone might be watching a map where my mobile phone leave a trail of flashing dots to keep track of my movements.
We are moving towards a society where the corridors of power are as closed and secret as possible for the people, and where the people’s lives are monitored. This is absurd, and should be the other way around. The corridors of power, the government, the high offices of the EU, and so on should be completely transparent. We as a people have a right to know what is being decided for us, and how the ones we elect do their job that will ultimately affect our lives. The government has NOT the right to secretly monitor US.
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