feet

I wear shoes. I'm one of those people who do not walk into a friend's den and kick off their shoes. Decades ago, I would have said I'm not one of those people who walk into a friend's den and kick off their shoes. Therein lies a huge cultural shift.

I do walk around the house barefoot sometimes. I was just thinking of Gerard Manley Hopkins's complaint about the modern world and how we are so distant from all living things: "nor can foot feel, being shod."

It took me a while to realize that Hopkins was precisely, diametrically wrong on that issue. The fact is that we whose feet are shod can feel more than our forefathers ever imagined. If you were to visit backwoods New Guinea, Weyak and his people would be amazed at your tender, soft feet. They're horribly unfit when you're trying to hunt barefoot. But they're exquisitely sensitive, being able to feel every blade of grass, something Weyak's blistered, calloused feet could never do.

So. Stick that in your foil and shake it, Gerard.