if the shoe fits

Clothes create a good timeline. They help us keep our memories vivid. In kindergarten, Elizabeth Goldsmith and I showed up in the same outfit - magenta turtleneck, jean skirt, and black dress shoes. We sat together, since we were twins that day, but we weren't really good friends the rest of the year.

I also think of the future in terms of clothes. If I ever get married, I like to think I'll buy a completely new set of underwear. I don't know why exactly...it just seems right. TMI? Oh well.

When I think of myself as a teacher in the future, I imagine myself wearing some random clothes that I don't own yet. But the thought popped into my head as I was lying in bed the other night - when I'm a teacher, I'm going to be wearing the same gross black shoes I've had since my senior year of high school. Cause I always wear them, and I'll be teaching in a year and a half. That's what made it hit me how dangerously close that is...the shoes.

Shoes just put things in perspective for me. The thing I will always remember from the holocaust museum is the huge piles of shoes that they made everyone leave. Cause you can actually look at them and see where people's feet have been. And how big they were, and what styles they liked, and whether the soles were worn down. Shoes are the most symbolic of all clothing. We talk about walking a mile in someone's shoes, which basically means living their life. Having their perspective and sharing their experiences. Shoes symbolize your journey in life. They've been everywhere you've been, and they've picked up the dirt and scuffs to prove it. Shoes can also be a status symbol. We talk about filling someone's shoes, or living up to the precedent they've set in a position.

In ancient Hebrew culture, you gave your sandal to someone when you made an oath to them. You actually gave someone your shoe to make a promise. Collateral cause shoes are so important? I don't know. In the Middle Ages, a father would pass the authority over his daughter to her husband in a shoe ceremony. At the wedding, the groom handed the bride a shoe, which she put on to show she was his subject. You never knew that was the significance in Cinderella, did you? Now the symbol still lingers when we tie shoes to the bumper of a bride and groom's car.


So...as symbolic as they are, what does it mean that I never buy shoes and wear the same disgusting pairs for 4 plus years? That I'm thrifty...or something more? Probably just the cheap thing.