- The Never-Told Story -
It’s so
much the socially accumulated prejudice
against the fact of going barefoot, that it’s almost inconceivable to raise it
as a matter of status, that is, a way
of asserting oneself in one's own social environment, as practically we all do
when using some characteristic
garment - shoes included, of course.
But it was
not always like this. There were times when bare feet acquired a great symbolic meaning on certain occasions of
great solemnity, not in a penitential sense, to which it has been currently
confined, but in others of a very different character, in which they were part
of the mandatory etiquette. (Some of
this still persists today, although already very blurred due to the irruption
of "modernity" in all areas of social life.)
Now that
everything is “disenchanted” (Weber),
there is no longer a momentous pretext to appear barefoot in public, unless you
are participating in a demonstration or campaign in favor of the poorest. For
example… to provide them with footwear! (The irony isn’t mere rhetoric of mine,
but in fact that happens.)
But there's
a certain nobility in emulating the American Pioneers, many of them
effectively barefoot, who built their country. (Who hasn't heard at least talk
about Johnny Appleseed, the legendary popular hero that really
existed?)
And the
same goes for many other individuals whose status as barefoot, voluntary or out
of necessity, did not prevent them from highlighting or even decisively
influencing their contemporaries. By just digging a little in history we can also
find them.
Ah! And
let's not forget the artists whose un-footwear is their characteristic “garment,”
whether on stage or in their daily lives, such as those who settle in the
Bohemia, -"artist's life", I define it - without taking care of the
"bourgeois customs" -as was said before the discredit of the political
Left.
So by
prestigious sources we don't stop, not only in History but also in Mythology,
ancient and contemporary, where there've always been heroes and heroines who
prefer not to wear footwear. And as the heroic character is once again booming,
there'll always be someone to emulate,
at least in his challenging attitude of not adjusting to the conventions of the
time. (There are even antiheroes, such as the real-life Barefoot Bandit, whose criminal "feats" have already been
told.)
The
tradition of BAREFOOTING, with the mythical that it may seem at the moment,
has not however lost its –literally- secular charm, as I learned yesterday
preparing this article, when encountering an unexpected invitation to a BAREFOOT CITY FESTIVAL that would take
place in the CDMX (Mexico City) a week ago, whose objective, in addition to the
obvious of having a good time barefoot, was to contribute to reforest an area
of the City: a palpable demonstration that this ANCIENT TRADITION retains
its NOBILITY
even in the dark days for those we go through.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Fernando Acosta Reyes (@ferstarey) is founder of the Investigative Society of the Strange (SIDLE), professional musician and student of social behavior.
Image: quatr.us
