One Day Without Shoes

Yesterday was April 5th which is the annual One Day Without Shoes. This is an event developed by the TOMS shoe company that spreads awareness of children's need for shoes all around the world. Here in America, so few of us understand what it is like to not be able to get something we need. There are those here that struggle financially and may have problems buying there children something so basic and necessary as shoes, but our country has an infrastructure built to pick up the slack. There are local organizations that provide these things for the less fortunate, thrift stores where they can be picked up at an affordable price, and enough children have shoes that even hand-me-downs are an option. But there are many countries around the world where none of these things are available to these families which means that their children go without shoes. This exposes the children to diseases and injuries that could easily be avoided, as well as inhibits their ability to travel to places like school. A lesser educated generation, is a lesser empowered one, less likely to fix the issues in their homelands such as the need for shoes. Therefore the cycle continues. By choosing to go one day without shoes (for those who have no choice) individuals and organizations have the opportunity to spread awareness both of the problem, and of the solutions. Sometimes people just don't know that theres something they can do about it. But this blog isn't about the solution, it is about the mindset. There is a perspective of many that I have come to believe needs altering, and i say this with love. Yesteray was my first experience with One Day Without Shoes, and for my part it was fairly easy. I only had one class to go to, and I didn't have to work. In fact the only public places i really went to were the school library (and lets face it, college students walk around shoeless in there all the time) and two gas stations. I understand however that it would be more difficult for some people who say would have to work. Wearing closed toed shoes is a requirment in food service establishments. Do you realize that we live in a country that has the luxury of making shoes a requirement for work, and for health code reasons? However in one conversation with a worker who had to wear shoes the worker did mention another inhibition that bothered me. "I was only going to be walking from my dorm to class to work, so I didn't think there was a point in going shoeless before work, besides it was pretty cold this morning." I have already said that I accept her work reason but what i found kind of ironic was that part of the reason we're doing this is to spread awareness for those without shoes, and for them it doesn't matter if its cold in the morning, they still don't have shoes. But aside from that, what bothered me the most is that this person said "i didn't see much of a point..." It reminded me of this quote i read recently, and forgive me for not remembering who said it or its exact phrasing but it said "It hurts to see when people do nothing, because they could only do little." Even if said person had only gone barefoot from the dorm to the class to work and then put their shoes on at work there would have still been opportunities for people to see their bare feet and inquire. I'm not saying that you're a bad person if you didn't participate, or that this person was a bad person, or what have you. But the idea that only doing a little isn't worth doing is the mindset that needs to be altered. First of all, more than likely there is more to do than you're aware of, and second of all if every person did that little bit the results would be much greater. And of course many realists/pessimists who think they're realists would say "but everyone won't." That may be the case, but at least you will be able to say that you did what you could even if no one else was. For more information on One Day Without Shoes, or TOMS shoes, here are some links. www.toms.com www.onedaywithoutshoes.com