Posted by Kathleen Quiring | Project M in Confessions & Personal, Counterculture | 11 Comments
Reflections on Barefooting and Nonconformity
Eight months ago, I decided to stop wearing shoes.
I could rattle off a number of impressive-sounding reasons for doing so. Like that it is an expression of my commitment to a minimalist lifestyle, or that it allows me to be in tune with my surroundings, or that it expresses solidarity with my less fortunate brothers and sisters who must go without shoes. Or I could explain how I think shoes are a largely unnecessary expense in our affluent, labourless lifestyles. Then there’s the argument that no one should have the authority to tell me whether or not I’m allowed to walk around without shoes, and so going barefoot makes a kind of statement.
Then there’s the less-impressive fact that I simply find it fun. Going barefoot feels nice. My feet feel healthier. I never get blisters or foot odor any more. I get to feel grass and concrete and ceramic under my feet, and I don’t have to fuss with laces or straps or Velcro before heading out the door.
But if I’m honest, I’ll admit that my primary motivation for going barefoot is that it’s nonconformist, and that appeals to me. (It may be more common where you live, but where I am in southern Ontario, no one goes unshod. I have not yet run into a single fellow barefooter).
I like being different. I enjoy being the oddball, and getting sidelong glances. I’m not sure if that makes me a self-absorbed douchebag or a courageous trailblazer. And this issue of purposeful nonconformity has been one of my main preoccupations since decided to go barefoot.
I’m torn. On the one hand, I feel like it’s productive to foster self-confidence and an ability to do certain things despite other people’s opinions or expectations. I feel that going barefoot for this purpose is therefore useful.
But on the other hand, I can see the danger in striving for nonconformity simply for the sake of nonconformity – in making lifestyle choices for the sake of sensationalism, attention, and feeling unique. Doing something just because no one else is doing it is just as poor a reason as doing it because everyone else is doing it.
So far, going barefoot has been fun and interesting with no real negative consequences. I left my shoes at home when I took a week-long trip to Montreal with my husband and didn’t run into any problems. I’ve walked into grocery stores, restaurants, museums, churches, hotel lobbies, movie theaters and drug stores without shoes and have gotten no complaints.
Except twice. In grocery stores, both times. I’ve had managers approach me and tell me I was breaching health and safety regulations by going around barefoot. I just told them I would pay for my stuff and leave, and they allowed it. There were no staff members escorting me from the premises or anything.
Because I’ve been approached a couple of times now, I now keep a pair of flip-flops in my car for emergency situations. That means that I now have a choice to make. When I’m about to get out of my car with my reusable grocery bags, I must decide: will I slip on the uncomfortable flip-flops and conform to health and safety codes that I consider superfluous and oppressive, or will I rebel?
It’s not a huge deal, of course. The worst consequence of me following my convictions and walking into the store unshod is that I will be asked to leave. Much more likely, though, no one will say anything, and I will be able to enjoy the pleasure of walking shoeless upon the cold smooth ceramic.
But the whole thing has forced me to reflect on the issue of conformity. How far am I willing to go for my convictions? How much negative attention am I willing to attract for the sake of my beliefs, my rights, my pleasures? Should I be proud of my tolerance for negative attention, or concerned?
I find these questions interesting in light of my Christian faith. We are called to be “in the world but not of the world” – to be aliens in a strange land. Does my decision to go barefoot help me to understand what it feels like to be an outsider, an anomaly? Or does it just fool me into thinking I’m doing something meaningful when I’m not? Is it encouraging an apathy towards the real issues that demand real courage?
Am I getting some valuable practice in, for when issues more serious than my right to be unshod arise? Or am I just being a sensationalist?
I’m not sure about any of these things. All I know is that the decision to go shoeless has provoked some very interesting conversations with friends and strangers alike. I also know that few things are more satisfying than the feeling of sun-warmed concrete on a cool summer evening, or the sight of brown water gurgling down the shower drain after a long day of meandering through a historical city. So far, I think it’s been for the best. But I still wonder.
Kathleen has a charmingly unpretentious blog about marriage called Project M.
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I was about to say that you couldn’t get away with that where I’m from, in Minnesota, then you shocked me by saying you live in Ontario. How can you do that in winter? The ground is really cold, let alone walking through snow.
Going without shoes works in our Western society, but it depends on the very fact that the streets are swept, lack of glass, lack of waste, human or other. We have no stray animal problems, we use antibacterial soap, those floors are mopped daily. To make a statement like yours about our affluence etc works, but I find it ironic that you can only do that because of our wealthy system that keeps so on top of sanitation. You depend on the very system you condemn to make your point.
In Mumbai you couldn’t do that without serious consequences, like injuries and infections that could lead to death without immediate care.
Thanks for your comments, Jordan. I know I won’t be able to continue going shoeless through the winter months, but I have been able to put it off so far (We’re lucky to be having an unseasonably warm November).
And I wouldn’t say I’m trying to condemn our affluent culture; I’m just trying to draw attention to something I think we don’t need. We are a culture with so much excess that we keep our floors sanitized AND we wear shoes. I find it fun and interesting to test how many things we can actually live without.
Hi Jason,
I wanted to point out that in Mumbai, a huge proportion of the population does go shoeless every day. My October was spent in Indonesia, where the majority go shoeless, despite the lack of sanitation and in defiance of glass, rubbish, human waste (and in one case, a rotting dog! Yech..) While I’m sure Indonesians deal with more illness, infection, and foot injuries than we do, shoes are still completely optional, even in the city. I think shoe wearing has more to do with temperature than sanitation, but those are just my observations so far.
Thanks for bringing this up!
Heather
How much of Mumbai’s shoelessness is voluntary? I would guess that for most of those people, either 1) They have no shoes, and therefore wear none or 2) They have 1 pair of shoes and reserve it for cases where it is most necessary in the interest of not killing it, because it is hard to replace.
oh…
So, it appears I was mistaken as to why people are barefooting these days.
I thought they did it because of the research on the Tarahumara tribe and how running barefoot is much more efficient than with shoes. (the tribe record is over 400 miles in under 48 hours) (I’ve forgotten the specific numbers of miles, but just take into account the Olympics marathons are no longer than 25 miles, and this Mexican tribe smokes those athletes.)
when you run barefoot you run on the balls of your feet, instead of the heal, that’s why they started making those weird running shoes that have almost nothing to them and look like rubbery toe-socks.
I think I just added a reason to your barefooting, and also realized my subconscious ideas on barefooting were kind of … strange. hahaha
I think you hit the nail on the head when you said that nonconformity for its own sake has no merit. I don’t think many people realize that. They seem to think that the mere fact of intentionally being different in some usually trivial way is a virtue, whereas I hold that the good or ill of any act depends on the inherent moral value of that act, regardless of whether it is simultaneously either an act of conformity or nonconformity. An act of charity does not become more meritorious when it is an act of nonconformity (except, perhaps, insofar as it requires courage); and an act of cruelty does not become good simply because it is an act of nonconformity (if anything, the societal resistance only makes it more heinous).
As to your question of whether being a nonconformist with regard to footwear is good practice for resisting societal influence when it really matters, I think not. The habit that is formed, the mark it makes on your soul, is just as likely to resist God as it is society. That is why I think the Bible talks so much about obeying God and the importance of obedience. Now, of course, it is ipso facto true that sometimes an act of obedience to God is simultaneously an act of rebellion against the world. But important thing is that you are focused on the positive fact of obedience and not training your heart in the negative habit of rebellion.
Not only is the positive habit of obedience a virtue and pleasing to God, but I think one will find it lends more strength than its counterpart. If training yourself to constantly resist and be suspicious of the influence of others doesn’t cause you to move away from God Himself, nevertheless I think that that continuous effort will wear you down. It offers no moral support. To whom will you turn when you are worn down and disheartened by the act of constantly resisting? Hopefully to God. But those who turn to Him soonest are those who are already deriving strength from Him to carry on, and justification for the natural shame that comes from (really) going against the grain. But perhaps best of all is the fact that you are likely to be many like you who are also trying to obey God and with whom you can exchange moral support.
In short, obedience to God is always good. Rebellion against society is only sometimes good; and as an attitude of the heart, it is always bad.
Correcting myself:
“But the important thing is…”
“you are likely to meet many like you…”
I agree with Travis. My inherently rebellious, defiant personality cringes, but I know it’s true. I have been learning obedience and submission, both to God and other authorities, and I believe it to be the ideal state of the heart for a follower of Jesus. Not that anti-conformist/rebellious tendencies are contrary to the Kingdom, because they aren’t, but they shouldn’t be the default disposition of our hearts.
That being said, I’m a fellow barefoot lover as well– shoeless 98% of the time. But I do not consider it training grounds for standing up for higher convictions, or a chance to make a “statement.” Honestly, going barefoot for those reasons doesn’t change anything; it doesn’t help the kids in India who don’t have shoes, or do any epic work of good. It’s a simple thing, a matter of preference. Nothing else.
Bret: that might be an added reason if I ever ran.
Travis: Thank you. I couldn’t have asked for more a insightful, articulate response to my reflections.
I appreciate this added perspective, and I actually really needed to hear it. I’ve always had a bit of a nonconformist streak, and I’ve often been tempted to think of this as some kind of virtue. You have elegantly reminded me that a rebellious heart is meaningless at best and dangerous at worst.
Tia and Travis both — I appreciate your emphasis on obedience to God as opposed to rebellion against society. You can bet I’ve been doing some re-examining and praying in response to your insightful comments.
I agree with Travis and Tia’s comments, but want to emphasize the positive end. I think it is a sign of courage to have the guts to do something you think is praiseworthy in spite of the fact that others think it’s dumb. I like to go barefoot for two of Kathleen’s aforementioned reasons: the sensation of things touching my feet, and the principle of not bothering with anything you don’t need (minimalism). Also because it’s just plain comfortable. My enjoyment of those things is enough to do something other people find weird/stupid. And I think such an attitude is in itself praiseworthy.
However, courage, like all virtues, cannot be separated from other virtues or it will become corrupt. If your actions are wrong, doing them more courageously will only cause damage. It’s kind of like asking whether strength is in itself is good–I’d argue yes, technically, it is good. But strength in the wrong hands or exercised in the wrong situation only causes more trouble.
And I suspect all virtues become diseased when pride is introduced. Courage without humility is often nothing but selfish and often spiteful grandstanding, which is Satanic in the most literal sense.
Secondly, how much courage do we really display by going barefoot? I don’t claim much, though I love barefooting. When someone says it’s stupid that I’m not wearing shoes, I enjoy the attention more than anything else. It’s not like I feel persecuted.
As an interesting side note, I actually find it very hard to worship God while wearing shoes. When I start worshiping, the shoes come off.
Me too! I’m always reminding of God telling Moses to take his sandals off, because the ground he was approaching was holy. I don’t think I’ve had shoes on once during worship this whole year, now that I think about it. Glad to know I’m not the only one.