“I find it very difficult to walk with no shoes on. It’s as though my feet attract energy and stimulus from the ground, setting off my cerebral palsy with random spasms of involuntary movements, like a pinball machine, on a state highway 1 detour over unsealed roads” – A Different Light – Northern Advocate 48 hours 30th January 2016.
Barefoot in the kitchen…barefoot and fancy-free…barefoot and pregnant.
After the relaxed and gluttonous holiday period I could be accused of looking like both of these, but the thing is I’m hardly ever with bare feet. I just find wearing no shoes very alien and naked. In fact, I find it very difficult to walk with no shoes on. It’s as though my feet attract energy and stimulus from the ground, setting of my cerebral palsy with random jolts and spasms of involuntary movements, like a pinball machine on a State Highway 1 detour over unsealed roads.
Over this summer, however, I decided to liberate my feet, giving them a taste of vitamin D and UV. After all, you never know when you’re going to be in a situation where you have to be barefoot. Time to harden up my jellyfish-like hooves.
New Zealanders have a real penchant for taking their shoes off when they enter someone’s house. Then of course there’s marae protocol, something that always puts me on edge. However some marae in Northland are very understanding. I have found they will accommodate the needs of disabled people, such as the need to keep shoes on or others’ need to bring guide and hearing dogs.
Last night I was home alone. I had decided to continue barefoot training when I remembered there were possibly some shards of glass on the floor. The night before I’d knocked our second to last wine glass onto the wooden floor. It shattered far and wide and, as always with broken glass no matter how much one sweeps and vacuums, there’s always that elusive splinter waiting to hungrily tuck into a heel or toe.
Wine glasses seem to be are on the endangered list in our household. We’ve been through a lot: crystal sets munificently given to us by our children; bulk sets that have been heavily discounted from the ware-whare; crikey, we’ve even been through huge retro collections of one off glasses and in my defence, it isn’t just me (mainly though!).
So back to my desensitisation session…to add to the bare footed angst of navigating alleged, probably non-existent, pieces of glass, one of our sydney silky doggie terrorists started barking incessantly. He just would not give up, even after various cajoling noise-making strategies including shouting, pleading and shaking the dog biscuit jar.
Eventually I realised it had bailed up a baby hedgehog. Last time they did this it was not pretty at all so I knew I had to take action. I had to take my bare slabs of corned beef outside and manually carry the dog back. A remarkable feat – particularly with unremarkable feet, dog in hand, me walking across the lawn.
I watched the final episode of Doc Martin this week. He was held captive when making a rural house visit. His captors wanted to force him to cure the incurable.
In order to thwart his escape attempts they demanded he take off his socks and shoes. Well, that would work for me. In fact, if I ever got convicted and sentenced to home detention, they wouldn’t need to put an ankle bracelet on me, just confiscate my shoes and that would be it, job done.
The social model of disability says that an individual isn’t disabled, they may have impairments but it is the environment, the community and society that disables them. This is a very useful model or view when doing disability awareness training. I often use the analogy of a world without glasses or contact lenses where people with dodgy eyesight would be disabled.
Imagine a world without shoes, however. Heaven forbid.
Downloadable pdf below:
| Available Downloads | Type | Size |
|---|---|---|
| Sole purpose – A Different Light – 30th January 2016 | 407 KB |