Saving the world through uncomfortable shoes?

Note: if you are easily bored by semi-pointless meandering blog-posts you should immediately skip the following, and get a cool drink instead!

My shoes hurt me...not a lot...not as though there are nails sticking through them or if they were too tight...they just are a constant source of minor-league discomfort.


The shoes weren't all that great to begin with..."boat shoes" is what the catalog calls them...really they're like slippers with marginally more serious soles. I think of them as the moral equivalent of flip-flops, but with a little more siding. I've always owned a pair, and they generally last me about 10-12 years before the start looking too ratty to wear past the end of my driveway.

We are approaching the raggedy end of the life-cycle of this particular pair of shoes, but their appearance is not the issue...the problem lies deeper within the shoe...



The insole of the left shoe partially detached a bit less than 2 years ago (I know...I know...), and the loose flap of leather kinks up and rubs the bottom of my foot.

I tried to put a new insole over the aging one...no luck...it slid around and made the shoe feel funny...

I tried to duct-tape the flap back to the bottom of the shoe...this worked for a time, but eventually the duct-tape came up, and exacerbated the problem...

For the last 6 months, I've been trying to stoically ignore the flap and the attendant chaffing...sometimes it works better than other times...

My point (yes, there is a point) is that I could have easily replaced the shoes when the flap came un-attached, but I didn't...

The first, and seemingly obvious (to those who know me), answer to why I did not just shout to Bean for another pair is that I was lazily and futilely hoping the problem would go away...I choose to look beyond the obvious, and search for another, more profound, reason.

I like to think that perhaps I chose not to discard my "slippers-plus" in favor of a newer model because:

• they still keep out the snow and slush when I tromp outside in January to grab an armload of firewood, so to replace them now would be wasteful
  
• my scheduled replacement date is still 2 years off (in the Fall of 2008...October I'm thinking...)
• there are people around the world (most people around the world actually...) who have much bigger problems than my somewhat uncomfortable slippers, and the constant reminder of this humbles me, forces me to keep those less fortunate than myself in mind, and nags me into being thankful for all that I have...

So for the next 2 years, longer if things go right, you may see me limping a bit when wearing a slightly beat-up looking pair of shoes...don't worry, I'm all right, I'm just trying to better myself through mild suffering.