walked around
With your feet at war
© myboys.me / Adobe Stock
First it drove our author with her feet on top. Then the two grew beyond themselves. Of course, the owner didn’t like it at all…
The fact is: I’ve always liked to live big – with shoe size 41 that’s no problem. Except in a shoe store. There it always came down to the fact that after a lot of putting on and taking off shoes – which would probably have fit an ogre, but always pinched me somewhere – a saleswoman sighed: “Maybe you need to switch to the men’s department now.” But it got worse.
My running tools eventually started to have a life of their own. I’ve been at loggerheads with them for a number of years now. And yet they were really beautiful: long and narrow, the toes getting bigger in fine nuances from the small ones onwards – like a Gothic harp. Ah, ah!
I slipped into high heels with them. Every day, because unlike many of my girlfriends, I didn’t have any pain in the tight, high things. No pressing, no stinging, no burning. I could float in them.
Disasters often begin insidiously. First my big toes pinched. Soon I felt the pain even in flat shoes, then after just a few steps. Diagnosis: osteoarthritis. Two surgeries later, as planned, I had stiff base joints. So I could walk again – but no longer wear pumps. Sure, it saves money, but has shoe shopping ever been about money? I used to be a waitress just so I could afford a high-heeled duo in dark green. And because shoes are also pack animals and you can hardly stop such urges, more and more people joined them. They had to stay in the closet now.
Our feet carry us through life
Even if sneakers don’t always look chic with a little black dress, I still wore them well. Unfortunately, that didn’t impress my left foot: a ganglion bone suddenly grew on my great uncle’s back, which rubbed sore on all shoe models. It is an inheritance from dad that my two siblings and I have inherited. “I’ll have that sanded off,” said my older sister defiantly – but she still walks around with it today. And I also shied away from such an intervention and have been typing around in the shoe shop in front of the shelf with size 42 ever since. Anyone who has ever looked at women’s shoes of this size knows the humiliation I’m talking about: beige-colored health shoes with small holes in them to let air get to the foot. Then I can put on an ocher functional vest right away.
How much can a person endure? His feet at least a lot – in the course of a lifetime several hundred tons of weight accumulate. Because I had the feeling that my two were still growing, I went to my orthopedist, who straight away put forward the following thesis: “It can also be due to the weight. Did you gain weight during Corona?” Nah… well… well… yes… I had to admit, I stayed at home a lot and ate a lot because I wasn’t supposed to go out (own logic), and my feet seemed to widen with me. How big do they want to get?! Will they ever need their own zip code?
Once I took a very close look at my feet. I moved them, looked at them from all sides, the instep, the ball of the foot, the heel. And suddenly I was overcome with emotion. “You’ve been through so much with me,” I said to them. “What have I done to you! And you endured it so long without complaining.” I remembered a saying my grandmother used to say: Be kind to your feet, they carry you through life! she was right. I took my cell phone and booked an all-round pampering package for the two of them. For the price of a pair of high-quality high heels. “I promise you, I will treat you well from now on, I will moisturize and care for you, go to pedicures regularly and simply accept the inevitable. I will make things right again.” First item on the programme: watch “Three hazelnuts for Cinderella”. The TV is within easy walking distance.
Steffi von Wolff has been a little slower since she only wears flat shoes. That must be higher physics.