- The Never-Told Story -
Those who at some point feel that BAREFOOTING, that is, being habitually barefoot is, for reasons not yet well defined, an important and even necessary part to living in fullness, begin trying to justify, first of all before themselves, this desire, which many consider nonsense, but whose satisfaction makes a difference to those who feel this "internal call."
They usually turn to some argument already known – there’s a whole variety of them that allows them to establish a first COMMITMENT with the decision that, of course, they have already taken. (It’s characteristic of the volitional sphere that every manifestation, even subjective, has a long process of more or less conscious elaboration behind it.)
In my case it was Naturism as self-discipline, stimulated by the presence in this country of hippies, especially young women, who gave us the (good) example of going barefoot without worrying about it. Why not do the same then? It was the 70s, when there was still no problem to show that behavior in the media, especially the movies. Although then came a virtual - yes! - CENSORSHIP that has not yet dissipated.
A period of social latency followed in which only by exception one was barefoot in public, developing - spontaneously? - an anti-barefooting ideology that "forced" most of those who were willing to throw shoes to be, if not closet barefooters, at least to give themselves that satisfaction only in PRIVATE.
Right now, when barefooting begins in the facts to express itself again as a visible (social) phenomenon, it doesn't stop calling attention that a good amount of its practitioners, far from simply “taking over” its surroundings and coming and going freely, as any other person would, institutionalizing his presence in society, tend to limit his true "self-expression" to his fellow barefooters, subtly but sharply demarcating their membership in a MINORITY, thus creating a kind of "virtual ghetto."
It should not be the case, since by defining oneself as a member of such an "elite," is to invite potential prohibitionists - by neurosis, modesty or whatever to go further and try to formalize his position, so that it’s no longer possible to show the bare feet in public without “legal” consequences, as delusional as it may seem, happened recently in Burien, in the U.S. State of Washington, where any person who enters barefoot into a public building - office, library, etc. - can be accused of trespassing with the consequent fine and even imprisonment if he or she "reincides"(!)
It's not to underestimate the political dimension that acts as innocent as going barefoot and similar ones can reach in a macrosocial context. That's why we must channel the individual and collective practice of barefooting so that it's comfortable and liberating for ALL. It's the best guarantee against the arbitrariness of rulers and apprehensive individuals.
And the best way to do it, I think, is NATURALIZING it, integrating it completely into everyday social life.
Fernando Acosta Reyes
(@ferstarey) is founder of the Investigative Society of the Strange
(SIDLE), professional musician and student of social behavior.Image: susurrosdeluz.com
