If my mother saw what I saw in the supermarket yesterday, she’d have a fit! As I looked up from my wallet to pay the cashier, I saw a dude with no shoes on. In the supermarket! No shoes! Barefoot! In the supermarket! Decently dressed ankles up, he looked perfectly sane and healthy, but with no shoes on. Barefoot. In the supermarket.
When I was a little girl, my mother told me that if I walked barefoot outside in the garden, I’d be giving worms the chance to penetrate the skin on the soles of my feet and work their way into my system and do some serious damage. Worms! Ick! Whenever I was told so I had this mental image of squirmy worms going “Whee!” while surfing through my blood stream on their way to the heart to eat it out. Then I’d shudder and quickly run back onto concrete-covered ground and sigh from relief. I’d look down, wiggle my toes, and nod approvingly at how my feet appeared safe from invading worms just yet.
These days I no longer play out things in my head quite as vividly as I used to. At least, not when it comes to worms and bare feet. But when I caught sight of that dude without shoes on (with rather dirty toenails to boot), I couldn’t help but shudder and then curiously wonder whether it was a normal occurrence here in New Zealand since nobody else seemed to be sneaking instares glances like I was.
And then I realized that he wasn’t alone. There were other people walking about barefoot on the streets outside as well. Just walking along, minding their own business, without any shoes on.
Lest any of you call me a hypocrite…I know, I know, being South-East Asian means I am no stranger to being barefoot. No self-respecting SE Asian wears shoes in homes. Shoes are left outside at the front door. Everyone knows that. It’s all right to go without shoes inside one’s home. We mop the floor every week and there isn’t much chance you’d be exposed to worms/sharp objects/poisonous plants indoors. As long as you keep your floors and feet clean, everything is A-OK. Even back in the days before Bata shoes were so popular in Malaya and the Malay *kampung house was prevalent, every home would store some water at the front door for people to clean their feet with before entering. So they could take their homemade sandals off and enter with clean feet. I’ve been walking about barefoot almost daily all my life, but rarely outside, out in the open. I’ve been taught it isn’t very hygienic. Indoors is clean. Outside is not. Who knows what’s been on those streets.
So I googled ‘being barefoot in New Zealand’ to appease my curiosity as to why anybody who looked like they could afford shoes, would walk outdoors without any on. The first hit was Wikipedia. The fact that they had a paragraph, albeit a short one, on benefits of walking barefoot piqued my interest further. The article quoted a 2006 study that claimed shoes increase stresses on the knee and ankle and suggested that osteoarthiritis patients may benefit from walking barefoot.
You learn something new everyday! My curiosity quickly turned into mild amusement as I discovered that there is a Society for Barefoot Living (SBL) in existence with over 1,000 members in 51 countries worldwide. The amusement then turned into respect as I read about SBL member Robert Juengst who in 2002 did Rabbit Pass, one of the most challenging alpine passes in New Zealand, wearing...you guessed it...no shoes.
Apparently there are many health benefits from losing the shoes and letting your feet go au naturel. SBL lists a whole bunch of them in the form of success stories from those who’ve gone barefoot. And I suppose New Zealanders have caught on from the looks of it. I’ve half a mind to walk outside tomorrow and count the number of barefoot-ers I see on the streets of Auckland.
I wonder what my Mum would say if I joined them.
*The kampung house: Traditional Malay wooden houses on stilts. Can still be found in Malaysia today outside major towns and cities. Modern variations made with cement are more popular these days. The word kampung means 'village' in Malay.
When I was a little girl, my mother told me that if I walked barefoot outside in the garden, I’d be giving worms the chance to penetrate the skin on the soles of my feet and work their way into my system and do some serious damage. Worms! Ick! Whenever I was told so I had this mental image of squirmy worms going “Whee!” while surfing through my blood stream on their way to the heart to eat it out. Then I’d shudder and quickly run back onto concrete-covered ground and sigh from relief. I’d look down, wiggle my toes, and nod approvingly at how my feet appeared safe from invading worms just yet.
These days I no longer play out things in my head quite as vividly as I used to. At least, not when it comes to worms and bare feet. But when I caught sight of that dude without shoes on (with rather dirty toenails to boot), I couldn’t help but shudder and then curiously wonder whether it was a normal occurrence here in New Zealand since nobody else seemed to be sneaking in
And then I realized that he wasn’t alone. There were other people walking about barefoot on the streets outside as well. Just walking along, minding their own business, without any shoes on.
Lest any of you call me a hypocrite…I know, I know, being South-East Asian means I am no stranger to being barefoot. No self-respecting SE Asian wears shoes in homes. Shoes are left outside at the front door. Everyone knows that. It’s all right to go without shoes inside one’s home. We mop the floor every week and there isn’t much chance you’d be exposed to worms/sharp objects/poisonous plants indoors. As long as you keep your floors and feet clean, everything is A-OK. Even back in the days before Bata shoes were so popular in Malaya and the Malay *kampung house was prevalent, every home would store some water at the front door for people to clean their feet with before entering. So they could take their homemade sandals off and enter with clean feet. I’ve been walking about barefoot almost daily all my life, but rarely outside, out in the open. I’ve been taught it isn’t very hygienic. Indoors is clean. Outside is not. Who knows what’s been on those streets.
So I googled ‘being barefoot in New Zealand’ to appease my curiosity as to why anybody who looked like they could afford shoes, would walk outdoors without any on. The first hit was Wikipedia. The fact that they had a paragraph, albeit a short one, on benefits of walking barefoot piqued my interest further. The article quoted a 2006 study that claimed shoes increase stresses on the knee and ankle and suggested that osteoarthiritis patients may benefit from walking barefoot.
You learn something new everyday! My curiosity quickly turned into mild amusement as I discovered that there is a Society for Barefoot Living (SBL) in existence with over 1,000 members in 51 countries worldwide. The amusement then turned into respect as I read about SBL member Robert Juengst who in 2002 did Rabbit Pass, one of the most challenging alpine passes in New Zealand, wearing...you guessed it...no shoes.
Apparently there are many health benefits from losing the shoes and letting your feet go au naturel. SBL lists a whole bunch of them in the form of success stories from those who’ve gone barefoot. And I suppose New Zealanders have caught on from the looks of it. I’ve half a mind to walk outside tomorrow and count the number of barefoot-ers I see on the streets of Auckland.
I wonder what my Mum would say if I joined them.
*The kampung house: Traditional Malay wooden houses on stilts. Can still be found in Malaysia today outside major towns and cities. Modern variations made with cement are more popular these days. The word kampung means 'village' in Malay.
1 comment:
So your telling me worms wont crawl into my feet?! I swear I always thought the same, I'm going for a barefoot walk now (oh wait its snowing)
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