Daily Archive for November 26th, 2006

What Your Shoes Say To Me

Published on November 26, 2006 in For the Record. 4 Comments

What Your Shoes Say To Me
Sunday, November 26, 2006-7:57AM EST

 

It’s been a nice week end with Blossom. We’ve talked about everything under the sun. I think yesterday we talked about everything from Biblical history to heart surgery, to a woman’s thought process right into the subject of shoes and what they reveal to me about the person wearing them.

The first two things I notice about people are hair and shoes followed by clothing. Those few things tell me a lot about a person and how they feel about themselves as well as a bit about their view of the world. I know what you’re thinking, how does fashion play into general views. Let me explain.

I believe that fashion is a very personal thing. Not necessarily what we wear but how we wear it reflects the inner self. A tucked in shirt gives off a different message than a shirt that hangs. Baggy pants and long sleeve shirts give off a different message than painted on jeans and a revealing shirt. A super long skirt as opposed to a normal cut, a solid colour shirt as opposed to one with a logo, stripes, flowers, animals or cartoon characters all give off a totally different message to me. Those are the things you can see outright but what really lets me know more about a person is their socks. Socks? Yup, socks.

Socks are something underneath, usually “hidden” beneath pant legs and covered by shoes. For me, careful attention to something usually not seen or seen very little means the person attention to details, even the ones most might overlook. My biggest pet peeve for shoes and socks is white socks and black dress shoes. White socks and black shoes only look right on David Letterman. A nice pair of socks that match the “outfit” and the shoes says a lot to me about the person. In certain situations I want those socks to talk to me! Tell me you pay attention to details, you don’t cut corners; you care about the smaller unseen things about yourself.

When it comes to hanging out with friends or general attraction to another person their shoes can tell me a lot about them. Blossom says she wants to see very clean tennis shoes with sturdy, unscuffed soles. I personally want to see them broken in, warn and comfortable looking. A nice broken in pair of tennis shoes says to me the person knows how to relax and doesn’t avoid mud puddles at all costs, isn’t so uptight that getting a drop of dirt on their shoes would ruin their stuffy day. Broken in tennis shoes show character, shows the person knows how to relax and let their hair down. That’s what it says to me. Blossom feels a nice pair of well kept tennis shoes means the person appreciates the value of the object and wants to look their best even when relaxing.

It is simple conversations like this that I enjoy most. Yes, we talked about Stalin’s terror, about the Moabites and about angioplasty but the conversation I enjoyed the most was about shoes and socks. To me, those two items say a lot about a person. Two people can look at the same object and draw a completely different conclusion. I find that fascinating.

 

Austin

(a broken in tennis shoes w/ white socks, baseball cap kinda girl)

My reply to Silvery Lizard

Published on November 26, 2006 in For the Record. 1 Comment

Three little known racism facts:

  • Racism is the leading cause of death by stupidity. Being stupid and a bigot kills.
  • Heavy racist smokers fill more bar stools in the Stupid Man’s Saloon than any other smokin’ drinkin’ idiot. Please don’t let your friends drive and racially divide.
  • 99.666 percent of racist marriages end in divorce. Hatred is the other man/woman and soon jealousy sets in destroying your hate filled union. Do not go to bed an angry racist it’ll ruin your marriage.

Nope, we didn’t feel targeted at all. I know there have been a lot of white bashing posts going around. As I said in my comment concerning the posts I wrote about holidays, while writing them not once did I think of race. I never thought of red and white. I thought of a celebration built on misrepresentation and of people willing to ignore repeated requests not to send holiday cards. However, I’m sure that since race is such a volatile subject that entry could have also been considered racially charged. I’m pleased to know that you saw the post for what it said and not what it might have meant. The posts were about holidays, untruths and boundaries, not race. When I read that you understood that I was quite relieved. It kind of spun my head around when it occurred to me that maybe someone could have seen it as a racially charged post therefore making my post guilty by association. Not all anti-thanksgiving posts are racially charged but it is very possible that since many are mine could have somehow been seen that way. Yikes. So far no one has said it sounded that way but it just popped into my head that it could have sounded that way.

As you said in your entry, there are many times that people are guilty by association (crime, race, what have you). Race is one of those topics that easily gets out of hand. Most people aren’t willing to address it socially because of its high potential to end friendships. Talking about race is like walking on a frozen lake with a friend. Both are talking to each other like reasonable adults when one wrong move is made and the whole scene changes. You hear that infamous slow rolling crack. It creeps across the pond at first but then quickens its pace. The next thing you know you’ve been sucked into icy water and your friend is not willing to throw you a buoy. It’s a hard subject and one I try my best not to address on this journal simply because of its destructive tendencies. Sometimes it comes up but for the most part I leave that subject alone.

I’m happy we have an understanding of the purpose of your posts and of mine. You are welcome to email me, that’s not a problem.

Smiles to you and yours,
Austin’s August