To Thine Own...

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One of my all time favorite Shakespeare moments has to be from Hamlet. In it, Polonius gives some last minute advice to his son Laertes before he heads off for an adventure in Paris.

He is a little long winded about it but ultimately he advises his son, “This above all: to thine own self be true.”

While this quote has been so overused that it is almost cliché, it is still great advice, so much so, that I have spent a lot of time thinking about how applicable that particular quote is, not only to my overall life, but also to my feet.

As my parents will tell you, I was born with bad feet. Actually, to be more precise—I was born crippled and I was exceedingly lucky to be born in Canada where they performed a surgery that would allow me to grow up normally and not be “thrown in the garbage can”, as my father used to joke while he helped me perform strengthening exercises on my feet.

Growing up, I had to wear dreadful looking shoes designed to mold my feet. I vividly remember hating them because they hurt and tore apart my heels. Besides, they were terribly ugly! To add insult to injury, I also had these dark grey plastic heel inserts that I had to slide into my shoes to hold my feet more upright. I can’t imagine how much money my parents spent on these things, but the only thing I remember was how—after only a couple of weeks of wear—my little feet would rebel and break down the plastic, rendering the stupid inserts useless.

Unbeknownst to my parents, I stopped using the inserts and, true to my nature, did whatever I wanted. Even though I was strictly forbidden to cruise around anywhere without serious arch support, every summer, I kicked off my shoes and planted them in the soft dirt. There my feet were happy, free and did not see another restricting shoe until it was time to stop running in the fields with the horses and go back to school.

That approach worked for a long time and I even became a track star as I didn’t have any problems or pain in my feet. Then, the pain started. It was about fifteen years ago when I began university and had to walk everywhere in shoes. This was, consequently, the time to grow up, get a job, study and put aside my summer days of frolicking barefoot in the fields.

The suggested course of treatment for the pain was to have special orthotics fitted to aid my feet in their ways. So, I did, but after years, the pain became unbearable and I started looking for surgical options as an alternative.

Soon my research took me to a series of articles suggesting that everything that I had been told by my high-paid foot doctors was wrong. Besides the monetary price, it seems as though there is a price to be paid for the security and comfort of a well-fitting running shoe... and that price is the health of your feet.

Without going into the details, one’s foot has over 20,000 years of bio mechanical evolutionary engineering behind it, and yet, we smoosh it into a commercially acceptable form (the shoe) and take away its ability to feel the ground by putting huge slabs of plastic squishiness underneath it. Over the years, the foot’s proprioceptors forget what the ground feels like as the foot conforms to the shape of the shoe.

Alas, it is much the same with shoes as it is with dreams; it is never one size fits all.

It’s funny how that works and reminds me of a class discussion I had this week. I had just finished a lesson about careers with my students when I challenged them to think about what type of career they would do if money was no object. While some of them rose to the challenge and expressed their desire to be painters, or cowboys, or actors, others blatantly refused to participate, stating that it was stupid to even pretend that such a thing was possible. Did I not understand that they had to make money to ensure their future security and well being?

As a matter of fact, I did, much the same way that I used to understand that arch supports were necessary in ensuring the health of my feet. It was one of those things in life I never really gave much thought and never questioned because everyone believed it to be the truth. However, there is a huge amount of current research that suggests that not only are arch supports ineffective, but they are detrimental to the muscles of the feet.

Now, I do not pretend to know what constitutes a happy life for everyone (I am too busy figuring out how to bring Sean's and my dreams to fruition!), but I do want to teach my students to take a thoughtful approach to their own lives so I push them a little more: “Do you think in achieving financial security, you will have also achieved happiness? Are they the same?” I glance around, looking for an answer. None is offered, so I decide to give it to them for homework. Let them get into their groups and stew on it. Although their parents will probably hate me for asking such questions, I think it’s good for them to think about and challenge their societal norms. Just because their parents and their grandparents lived a certain way, does not mean it has to be their path.

Leaving the classroom and shutting the door behind me, I wiggle my toes in my new shoes. I recently ordered them special from the United Kingdom... ironically, they are everything that I was always told to avoid. They have no arch support, a super thin 3mm sole – giving me full feeling of the ground beneath me (if I step on a small pebble, I can feel it)–a 0 mm drop, and they are completely flexible (the shoe folds into itself...giving my feet unlimited freedom). I wiggle my happy toes again and look down at my now pain-free feet.

“To thine own feet be true, indeed!” I smile and set out on my walk home.

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