I have a question!
Oct. 2nd, 2004 12:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conuly
I go barefoot. A lot. Every chance I get, in fact. I hate shoes. Now, for years people told me to cut it out because "you might step in glass or something, and die of tetnus". (They eventually stopped. I think they got tired of always being wrong). I'd always reply, reasonably, that I didn't see any glass, and that if they could show me some glass I'd be careful to walk around it. This always, ALWAYS prompted/prompts the response:
Well, there could be glass!
I don't understand that. There is no glass. Look up the street. No glass. Look down the street. No glass. Simple observation will tell you that there is far less glass on the street than most people commonly believe. Were there glass, one could easily walk around it, the same way one walks around dropped toys and other dropped... things. I am neither blind nor stupid. I am perfectly capable of seeing obstacles on the ground and not walking on them. However, it does not matter. There is never any glass. I have seen glass on the sidewalk so rarely that I can actually list up the times. And most of the times, the glass was right up against a building, not in the middle of the path.
What confuses me is that, when confronted with one of life's harsh realities, namely the fact that there isn't any glass, people always say "but there could be!" as though this means I should take excess precautions where there clearly isn't any glass (or rusty nails, or lit cigarettes....)!
Why do they do this? Why don't they say something else? I'd even "what would you do if there were?", because that opens some sort of discussion (not much, what I'd do is walk around it). But not only do they expect me, apparently, to protect my feet against imaginary dangers, they also don't like me looking around and pointing out that these dangers don't exist! And I just don't understand that.
Well, there could be glass!
I don't understand that. There is no glass. Look up the street. No glass. Look down the street. No glass. Simple observation will tell you that there is far less glass on the street than most people commonly believe. Were there glass, one could easily walk around it, the same way one walks around dropped toys and other dropped... things. I am neither blind nor stupid. I am perfectly capable of seeing obstacles on the ground and not walking on them. However, it does not matter. There is never any glass. I have seen glass on the sidewalk so rarely that I can actually list up the times. And most of the times, the glass was right up against a building, not in the middle of the path.
What confuses me is that, when confronted with one of life's harsh realities, namely the fact that there isn't any glass, people always say "but there could be!" as though this means I should take excess precautions where there clearly isn't any glass (or rusty nails, or lit cigarettes....)!
Why do they do this? Why don't they say something else? I'd even "what would you do if there were?", because that opens some sort of discussion (not much, what I'd do is walk around it). But not only do they expect me, apparently, to protect my feet against imaginary dangers, they also don't like me looking around and pointing out that these dangers don't exist! And I just don't understand that.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-01 09:04 pm (UTC)Didn't bother with a shot, just pulled the thorn out.
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Date: 2004-10-01 09:06 pm (UTC)MY SHOE DID NOT PROTECT MY FOOT.
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Date: 2004-10-01 09:08 pm (UTC)The thorn just went in a bit and hurt. Wow.
How thick were your soles? A lot of people wear hard or thick soles. Bad for the feet, but maybe more protection in their minds?
no subject
Date: 2004-10-01 09:17 pm (UTC)I took off the sock and saw a puncture wound on the bottom of my foot. Based on the length of the nail I saw, and the fact that my shoe was flush to the level of the wood out of which it came, I can tell you it must have come within a half-inch of the top of my foot.
My soles were standard 'Eighties sneaker soles, perhaps Nike.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-01 09:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-01 09:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-01 09:27 pm (UTC)I told my family, we went to the hospital, they gave me a tetanus shot, said there was nothing more they could do, and my family and I went home. That was it. The wound closed, leaving a small scar. For all I know there's still rust and mud in my foot.