pieces and ponderings

It’s been a slow dawning…a creeping realization…one I’ve tried to ignore, work around, persevere through…but just a few days ago the truth stared me in the face and began to lodge in my mind.  I think… I’m pretty sure… ok… I know…I’ve flunked flip-flops in life.

The ugly truth met me when I tried on my latest pair of really nice, dark brown, imitation leather flip-flop sandals that I had purchased just a couple of days earlier.  They were just what I was looking for when I tried them on in the store, with the piece of heavy-duty plastic wrapped around the strap that goes in-between the big toe and the next not-quite-as-big-toe.  They looked nice so I bought them and was very pleased with my purchase.  Then on the facing-the-truth day, after the almost-impossible-to-remove heavy-duty plastic was finally removed from the strap on both sandals, I slid my feet into them and started to walk into another room.  Immediately the nerves of the tender top-of-the-foot-skin sent pain signals to my brain and screamed, “Remove immediately!”

I continued to take a few more steps and then succumbed to the reality that the imitation leather was going to rub deep holes into the top of my feet, while the little between-the-toe straps were going to cut off my toes.  That’s when I knew…I’ve failed at flip-flops.

I never wore flip-flops as a child like my two younger sisters did.  My feet stayed safely tucked inside my sneakers.  I didn’t go barefoot much either (my little sisters did that all of the time also).  Why walk around barefooted outside where innumerable hard or sharp things can easily penetrate the epidermis of the foot?  It made no sense to me.  Yes, Jesus had worn sandals, but there are NO pictures of them being flip-flops and besides, they didn’t have Nike’s back then.  (I did actually wear sandals as a child sometimes, just not the flip-flop kind.)

But a few years ago, I took the plunge and began purchasing flip-flops.  By golly, I would train my tender toes to work in flip-flops!  There has been some success, but last summer when my friend went on and on about her new Olukai brand flip-flops, talking about how comfortable they were, even MORE comfortable than going barefooted, I went and bought a pair…just like hers.  I found the right size in the store, tried them on, paid for them, went to my car and switched out of the shoes I was wearing into the most comfortable flip-flops in the whole entire world before finishing my errands for the day.  A couple of hours later, I walked through my backdoor with two raw and red feet; little holes rubbed into the tops of both of them.

I’ve not given up…yet.  I’ve continued to wear the most comfortable sandals in the whole wide world every once in a while and then stop to let the rubbed places heal.  I suspect that I will also do the same thing with the really nice looking, dark brown, imitation leather flip-flops that I just bought…I’ll just now wear them knowing and accepting the truth of my flip-flop destiny.