"FORREST WAS RIGHT."

"... Momma says you can tell alot 'bout people by they shoes. Where they goin'.... Where they been. Momma was a smart woman." -- Forrest Gump, esq.


Forrest was right. You can tell a lot about people just by looking at their shoes. Think about shoes for just a minute. Sometimes shoes tell us who a person is... When you think about a construction worker, does your mind picture heavy steel toed boots ? Firefighters in our "side zip" station boots ? How about nurses ? Personally, I can't think of anything other than those shoes that look like rocking chairs ( Shape- ups ?) or maybe crocs... when I draw a mental image of any medical professional. OK, Phil, we get it... The investment banker doesn't head off to his "9-to-5"  in hiking boots, and the park ranger at Yosemite doesn't wear wingtips to work... what's your point ?

Glad you asked.

Shoes help us identify more than just an individuals profession. Shoes tell us what someone is "fixin' " ( southern word, adv. means the same thing as "about to".) to do. They speak about someone's activity. A hiker's boots say he is trail bound, the jogger's light weight sneaker means he's "fixin" to run. Slip on dress shoes, and you're headed to something besides physical activity, maybe business or church.

fossilized human footprints

What's most interesting is not so much the shoes, and what they say about the wearer, and his or her activity,  but how they transfer the identity of the wearer to the environment. Each shoe has unique characteristics, and will leave a unique footprint... a footprint specific to the wearer. A man with a limp will tend to drag the affected extremity, smudging the print on that side, and and creating a drag mark as the foot leaves the front of the print. ( LAW AND ORDER, baby.) The runner's stride opens the distance between prints, and the push off from the toes digs an even deeper impression into the turf. In this way, we can tell as much about the wearer by the prints they left, as we can by the individuals selection of footwear.

Sometimes footprints are transient, like in the sugary sand of low tide,  sometimes permanent like this picture . Scientists were astonished to discover these... laid down in the same mud as dinosaur prints. Interesting, no ?
As we navigate through life, we too leave footprints along the way, indelible impressions on our environment, impressions on the souls around us. Think of every interaction between ourselves and other people as a " footprint". What are your prints saying about you ?

A few days ago I left a foot print... a young man said something I took objection to, and I retaliated by " jumping on him with both feet". ( not literally) I later realized that the footprint I had left didn't say that "a christian has come this way."... quite the opposite. Instead of an even steady gait, it was hurried, messy... digging deeply into someone elses turf, and leaving them with an impression of me that will most likely hang around a while. I regret it, but like a real footprint, it's hard to hide once the impression is there.