Humor Risks 

“Oh, Paul, you’re always barefoot,” declared a neighbor when we happened upon each other at the neighborhood Shell station. It wasn’t that I was always that way–just more frequently than is custom!—and this neighbor and I had happened to cross paths when I was working shoeless in the yard or out walking, and now pumping gas.

Spontaneous barefoot occasions are “humor risks” for me. A few years ago I found this website about how to cheer up when you’re blue, and among bits of advice, the author  encouraged “taking humor risks.” “When you are stuck in your own thoughts, do something just a little wild to get out of it. And do the same thing to help a friend who needs a good laugh.”

Exactly! The website didn’t recommend kicking off one’s shoes, but I like that term to describe these foolish, barefooted forays. There are websites and organizations that encourage a barefoot lifestyle. That was never interesting to me. I’ve simply enjoyed, over the years, these several spontaneous moments when I kicked shoes off for a while. Even if I’m not so blue, it’s a cheerfully silly little thing to do that can get me out of doldrums, or add humor to whatever I’m doing.

Sometimes during a road trip, if I’m down or homesick, I like to leave my sandals in the car when I visit a crafts store or gift shop in a small town. I ask if it’s okay, and frequently I get warm service. I always purchase something at such stores. Such places provide simple, fond memories, so much so that the scent of decorative candles and potpourri remind me of nice-weather drives.

Recently I found a purchase from a few summers ago that I’d misplaced, a plaque with an image of John Wayne and a saying, “Courage is being scared to death, and saddling up anyway.” I had stopped in a small town to take a break from a long drive, and decided to stroll shoeless among the antique malls. Browsing in one nice shop (where the AC seemed to be underfunctioning, so I was glad I stayed cool), I noticed the plaque at my feet. I bought it and later did an internet search about the quotation. Apparently Wayne never said that in any of his movies, but it’s still an apt quotation: a simple reminder to not let our fears get the better of us.

I thought of the quotation again during a summer as I was deeply worried about something (a symptom that turned out to be nothing). As the family chilled out in our motel, I decided to take a walk to the shops of the popular mountain town where we were staying. Using my worry as a reason (as if I ever needed one) to cheer myself with a shoeless walk, I left my flip-flops at the motel and loved the feeling of the warm sidewalk as I padded down the way toward town. Visiting a succession of shops, I found items for myself and for gifts. In one favorite shop, a clerk approvingly said she took off her shoes off in the store, but her feet got dirty from people traipsing in from the street all day, though she didn’t mind. There were a lot of tourists out strolling and shopping, and how pleasing to join that "party" barefooted.