10ofRods
Verified Anthropologist
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- Jun 27, 2019
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Because most people in the U.S. wear shoes? Especially when they are driving across country. If I saw a barefoot woman picking flowers by a cemetery crying, yeah I'd would think that IS weird. How often do you see that?
My dad was an Vietnam Army vet and he always taught me the importance of taking care of your feet. If your feet get cut/infected or get hurt and you can no longer walk on them, it puts you in an extremely vulnerable position.
I remember during the Petito/Laundrie case they were talking about Brian hiking barefoot and I thought: "what a freaking moron."
How often do people go to cemeteries, though? I would think a crying woman at a cemetery was someone who had a connection to a person in the cemetery and not think anything of it - barefoot or not. I would hope they were finding needed comfort.
And some of us take our shoes off every chance we get (many reasons, I think, but one of mine is foot comfort - I've been doing physical therapy for foot and ankle problems since I was three - all of them are done barefoot, so when I travel, I'm barefoot in any area I can be...in general, that has to be in some natural spot - not on asphalt or concrete or sidewalks).
A cemetery is an okay place to be barefoot, I think. I also have some moccasin-like shoes that allow me to do my foot exercises almost anywhere, but I prefer doing them barefoot as there's one exercise that can only be done with bare toes.
My dad was a WW2 vet and the moccasins were his idea, when we were traveling. I actually got my first pair in Arizona. Now I just wear flip-flops (my parents believed one ought not to drive with flip-flops, but I do it all the time, so far, so good).
I admit you don't see barefoot people in public or by roadsides/cemeteries much, but when I do, I don't think much about it. It's more common here in SoCal than one might think. People who do a lot of camping tend to be more comfortable barefoot in various places.
It's the part about trying to exchange Euros that bothers me. Fugue state? Mania? Severe depression? Disassociation? Other?
IMO