Posted: 12/05/06
CYBER COLUMN:
Shoe business
By Brett Younger
Every five years or so, whether I need to or not, I go to the cheapest shoe store I can find to buy a new pair of everyday shoes. My old pair was beyond old. I avoided puddles with my left foot because of the hole in the sole. The insoles were missing, so they slipped up and down like flip-flops.
When I told Carol it was time for new shoes, she sent Caleb along to buy tennis shoes. I was confused when he stayed in the aisle where I was until I realized that my 12-year-old now shares my shoe size. Caleb also picks shoes by the same criteria—the first ones we try on with which we can live. He quickly selected midnight navy/metallic silver Overplay Nikes that cost more than all the Keds I ever wore.
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| Brett Younger |
I asked the cobbler for dull, brown, everyday shoes with strings, but apparently they don’t make those anymore. The first shoes he found were peculiar. They looked like moccasins with rubber stops on the back of the heels. They were a poor man’s penny loafers with no place for the penny. They were the opposite of the blue suede shoes Elvis didn’t want stepped on, but they were dull, brown, on sale and shamefully comfortable. Dr. Scholl’s Memory Fit Insoles are like walking in marshmallows. I knew they weren’t fashionable, but these were the kind of comfy shoes an old woman with many children might want to live in.
Carol wasn’t impressed with my purchase.
“You bought house shoes.”
“I did not.”
“You did so.”
She had a point. They look and feel like house shoes. On Monday morning, I almost put them back in the closet, but then thought, “Maybe nobody will notice.”
Nobody noticed. I should have been wearing house shoes for years.
On Tuesday, I asked Pat Smith, one of the church secretaries, what she thought of my new shoes. She looked puzzled, “Why did you buy driving shoes?”
I’m going to keep wearing my driving shoes/moccasins/house shoes, because I’ve decided that my feet don’t deserve to be pinched by acceptable shoes.
We do way too much for the sake of appearances. (The devil makes people wear Prada.) Looking good is exhausting (or so I’ve heard).
People spend their lives doing what seems respectable. Some lawyers would live with more joy if they were kindergarten teachers. Some wives who drive a Lexus would be happier if they had waited for the guy who drives a Yugo.
Some of the people at the opera would rather be at the ballgame. Some at the ballgame would rather be at the library. Some reading the Wall Street Journal would rather be reading the Psalms. Some eating at a fancy French restaurant would really enjoy a burger and fries.
We run errands that don’t need to be run. We go to events that aren’t worth our time. We buy gifts to impress people who don’t need our gifts.
What looks good to the rest of the world may not be the way to go. We should spend less time worrying what others think and more time looking for what leads to real joy.
Do what makes your feet want to dance.
Brett Younger is pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth and the author of Who Moved My Pulpit? A Hilarious Look at Ministerial Life, available from Smyth & Helwys (800) 747-3016. You can e-mail him at byounger@broadwaybc.org.
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