I've been thinking a lot about shoes. I love them. (Proof of that love on the Nordstrom bill).

In 1991, I was fortunate to see the six-hour production of Robert LePage's "The Dragon's Trilogy". There was a scene that I will never forget because I was literally blinded with tears -- unable to speak or move during the intermission. (Larry K. Ash you totally remember this).

At the end of the second hour, shoes of all sizes - babies' booties -- ladies' sandals -- gentlemen's tie-ups line the stage to conjure up a 1940s shoestore.
Earlier, the shoeboxes have been a girl's toy village and Quebec City's Chinatown, and the booties were all the audience saw of a baby being born to a shoe salesman's wife.

A loving couple - a girl and her soldier boyfriend - skate around the stage to the sound of the "Skaters' Waltz." As the music grows, the soldier, now joined by other uniformed men, marches across the sand in ice skates, -- cutting through the sand and trampling the shoes. The salesman rushes about, vainly trying to rearrange them into pairs, but the soldiers kick them back into the sand. The salesmen gives up: the destruction is complete. The happy image of a shoestore has become as shocking as the photograph of children's shoes piled outside the Auschwitz ovens.

The shoes are a symbol of identity, the biological becoming of age. (The dictionary of symbols, under: shoes, 1986: D. Kuper, shoes).

I've read that the symbolism of the shoes which is related to the world of the dead, as well as the symbol of a passenger, is a Western one. Take, for example, the custom where shoes or boots (or socks) are put near the fire place the night before Christmas. Since the main idea of all passage rites is visiting the world of the dead and being born again is maybe the reason why passage rites connected to the life cycle include a great role of the shoes, like saving baby shoes and bronzing them. Smashing a wine glass with your shoe at a Jewish wedding. Dying with your boots on.



I did a Bible search on shoes and found an interesting thing:

When Moses blessed the tribes of Israel before his death, he mentioned something about shoes.

In Deuteronomy 33:25 he said, "Thy shoes shall be iron and brass". Both of these metals can withstand a lot of heat. But, those shoes might totally suck to wear. They would, however, stand up very well as protection against the various "enemies" of our walk which lie in the pathway of LIFE.

God also told Moses to take off his shoes because he was standing on holy ground. Does this mean that God was demonstrating that "holy ground" does not require shoes in order to "walk" comfortably?



Remember the end of Snow White when they found the evil witch "Then a pair of red-hot iron shoes was brought into the room with tongs and set before her, and these she was forced to put on and to dance in them until she could dance no longer, but fell down dead . . ."

Think of all the fairy tales about shoes.

The Red Shoes
Cinderella
The Twelve Dancing Princesses
The Shoes of Fortune



I think that shoes symbolize a person's character and that shoes have a special place in everybody's life.

I've had Bo's first pair of Reeboks hanging from my rear-view mirrors for 15 years now. I still wear his Doc Martins from time to time.

Bo died with his shoes off -- But his earthly remains went to the Great Beyond wearing these:




Here's to Shoes -- And everyone who loves them.