There are so many important things to talk about. Serious topics that warrant much thought and contemplation in the conversations. Things like, how the current political discourse is dividing the country; genocide in Sudan; or childhood obesity. Today I want to discuss a topic that has had me asking questions and seeking the wisdom of sage counselors for a good deal of my life. I want to know why there are so many single shoes laying on the side of the road? How does this occur? A single shoe. By itself, without it's mate, alone and discarded in the gravely no-man's land that is the highway shoulder. There are numerous possibilities for the shoe finding itself in this situation. But I cannot seem to find a peace about any of them. The most obvious being that it was tossed out or fell out of a moving vehicle. But is there more to this than meets the eye? Could this shoe have decided it had enough of being worn on a smelly foot all day and decided to run away? Was there some sort of quarrel with it's mate leading to a trial separation? Is there a shoe revolution being waged against forcing shoes to stay in pairs? Their picket signs would read "It's Not Fair, No More Pairs, WE ARE INDIVIDUALS"! There is really nothing more intriguing than the story of the single shoe on the side of the road. Wouldn't it be great if the discarded single shoes could be collected and somehow recycled and repurposed into something useful like a pop can cuzzy or a planter? That way we would feel better about the fate of the single shoe. At present there is a social stigma attached to it. We are uncomfortable with it. Probably because we cannot explain it. This is precisely why I felt the need to dialog about it. Open up a conversation. Get people talking.
Some interesting things I've observed about the single shoe; it is almost never a women's dress shoe, it appears more often on major highways instead of neighborhood streets; the number of single shoe sightings do not seem to change with the season; and last but not least, vehicles NEVER stop to pick it up. Again, this is most likely due to the unsettling nature of it's circumstances.
Being in a ministry family means that at any given time you are involved in collecting donated items for people in need. I've worked in a women's shelter that collected clothes and shoes, as well as numerous clothing drives and fundraising garage sales where clothes and shoes were donated. Oddly enough, there is almost ALWAYS a single shoe mixed in with the donated items. One would think that the single shoe donation would answer some of my questions, but it only results in more, leaving me utterly confounded. Over the years in working with donated items, I've learned the hearts of the people donating. They are done with their stuff, but they hope that someone else can still use it. With that in mind, how do they reconcile donating the single shoe? Do they believe that there is a poor soul out there with only one leg or foot that happens to need that exact kind, gender and size of their single shoe? But what if they needed the left shoe and only the right shoe was donated? DOH!
OK enough of the silliness. In spite of my concern for the plite of the single shoe, there is a bigger picture at which we should look. Having worked on mission in Mexico, with people that truly needed shoes, I have a general understanding of the importance of a good pair of shoes to improve the quality of life. There are some positivley spectacular ministries that collect and distribute shoes to people all over the world AND there are shoe needs to be met right here in our town. So the next time you are driving down the highway and see that sad, neglected (or perhaps just independent minded) single shoe on the side of road, let it be a reminder to you that someone out there needs a PAIR of shoes. Go home, grab a pair of your shoes and give them to a local charity. If you are one of those people that has a single shoe stuffed in the back of your closet because you don't know what to do with it......why not fill it with concrete, bedazzle it and call it a doorstop. Thanks for listening. See you next time.
Love this. Thought I was the only one bothered by the shoe in the road thing. I always feel uneasy about it. Being the pessimistic person that my mother raised, I immediately have a vision of someone being hit by a car and one shoe flew...or someone abducted, dragged or grabbed. I always feel like the shoe might be an important piece of evidence. Why haven't the police picked it up and dusted it for fingerprints? I will worry about the shoe-less person for hours, maybe days. But from now on, I will go home, get a pair of shoes, and donate them, so maybe whoever lost their shoe will be able to replace them.
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