Kids react. Some are just curious and start pestering their parents about why "that man" is around barefoot. Parents react with embarrassment trying to silence them. Other children just want to emulate and toss their shoes off only to be quickly forced back into them by their concerned moms. Any fun/inspiring stories ?
Once at a highway rest stop, a barefoot father was racing his barefoot daughter (about 8-9 years old) to the restrooms...giggling and holding each other back. Sadly, at a different rest stop, a girl about the same age doffed her "shoes" (flip-flops) to gleefully climb on boulders which were obviously meant to be climbed on. Her mother screamed at her to get off the rocks and to put her "shoes" back on. The girl sadly, dolefully complied, and sat mournfully on a bench. I, too, was mournful. But happily barefoot. My mom was always barefoot and encouraged us kids to do the same. My twin sisters would have contests to see who could go barefoot the longest and/or get the toughest feet.
Experienced A Funny Incident A Few Years Back.......Was Walking Down The Street Past A Lady And Her 4 Year Old Son.......Son Takes A Look At My Feet And Calls Out To His Mum.....MUM THAT MAN's NOT WEARING ANY SHOES......MUM MAKE HIM PUT HIS SHOES ON..... I Looked At Mum.....Half Closed One Eye And Said.....Don't Even Think About It..... She Apologised And Said He's A Very "Vocal Boy".......We Walked And Talked For A Few Yards And I Explained To Him Why......He Told Me He's Starting School Next Year And For The Most Of Our Conversation He Spoke Like An Adult.......A Very Intelligent Young Man..... Cheers Glen.
We raised our children communally, and they would run around like deer all day in good weather, visiting the garden like clockwork at different parts of the day. They were never hit or spoken down to and used to be treated as the equal of any adult, just less experienced, and having to answer to their parents. When outsiders talked down to them and insisted they knew better or whatever, they would sometimes torture them with bad jokes. They are just kids, didn't really hurt anybody, but you takes your chances messing around with them, and the rest of the commune is likely to merely attempt to hide their laughter.
As I kid I didn't really like being barefoot. I cant just stomp through those bushes or over those rocks ect when I was playing outside. My mom would try and make me take my shoes off in the house and not track in dirt. I was looking for links for one of our topics once and on the way found a website promoting the addition of warning labels on shoes that deform children feet. I have a toe that's damaged, little bit of hammer to it from when I was still growing and my feet jammed in tight shoes. I could never find it again. I might have posted a link here at that time I don't remember. I liked that idea. This is morbid but future archaeologists that find our skeletons are going notice how people from our time peroid screwed up their feet with shoes and assume we were just stupid. If I saw a warning label like that I would have "perfect" feet. I didn't know.
In New Orleans I was working selling used records, when the cutest little Asian boy walked up and looked at my records. New Orleans gets visitors from around the world, so I asked him where he was from and he said "Naahlans!" I laughed at his local accent, and asked if he liked the band "The Cars" and he said he hated them, because they are all ugly.
Well I like to think we are just, you know, throwing seeds around. And hopefully the seeds will germinate and shoot roots and sprouts. The fruit will be wider consciousness, not just "walking around with no shoes", that's mundane. After all being barefoot is a petty thing and we know that, but it takes some amount of nerve stubbornly keeping doing your private thing when all the world is whispering insults at your back, and this leads me to the thought that if you can simply scoff the opinions of the philistines you are in an excellent position to question all the rest of those things that people take for given. In short, if you are able to break free from utterly stupid social constructs like "you need shoes at all times of your life no matter if it feels right or not" then you can go further and and reach a higher state of awareness and liberation from more dangerous social conditioning. In a single sentence: " free your feet, the mind will follow". This thing sounds so stupid, right ? It is if you take it literally. Let's distillate this a bit further, you get: "QUESTION AUTHORITY" Which is the very formula of freedom, "authority" being here the might and unforgiving peer pressure. Lost so many friends to that, I hate to keep a record. I hope the kids will learn to think for themselves. And I feel very comfy doing that, no effort at all. Feels just right. Grow free, kids, follow goodness, knowledge and virtue, be kind with those who deserve it and never bow to the idiocy of the masses. holy crap what a bunch of rhetoric.
You have something against prisoners being naked and happy, or just chanting in general? Bare feet could reform the entire penal system!
an italian guy became a sadhu in india, he was jailed but still was a sadhu so the prison authority let himlight the sacred fire in the cel which was left open for others to meet the holy man. he was chanting free in jail. another one died as a political prisoner while writing letters and essays that are now witnesses of the strength of the human soul. you can be free in a cell, if you're man enough.
there is no way out of trolls. they are mosquitoes, an unpleasant reality to cope with. at least trolls can't leave you all itchy
Google is working on the solution to trolls, an AI that allows the individual to dial the vitriol up and down like a volume knob. That way they can all call each other trolls and never know it.
Sadly, trolls increase website traffic, and call each other trolls. That's why I'm creating bots that imitate them, so all the people out there accusing each other being trolls, can be attracted to websites filled with bots they can call trolls.
