Black Shoe Brown Shoe

A few years ago, a friend in the office stopped by my desk. “You’re flying low” I whispered. To my astonishment he became agitated and on the edge of anger. “Sorry!” I said, “but I thought you might like to know.” “I do want to know!” And with that he started to vent. He concluded with “a true friend will tell you your fly is down. People who really don’t care about you will let you walk around like that all day.” This story came flooding back to me yesterday when at 4:55 P.M. I reached down for my gym bag on my way out of the office and noticed that I had been wearing one brown shoe and one black shoe all day long.

The black shoe and brown shoe stayed on my mind all evening. “Do people in the office not care that I look like an idiot?” I began to wonder. “Do people in the office even look at me when I step away from the desk?” my mind continued. It is true that I spend most of my time behind the desk and not wandering around the office. However, the two shoes were so blatantly different that how could no one notice? I was beginning to feel invisible. Didn’t I speak to a lady or two in the women’s rest room? Did they look under the stall and snicker? I’m sure one or two of those ladies would have said something!

Now I know this is another shoe story. I am wondering at the significance of a story about shoes dropping and my wearing two very different style shoes. My feet never noticed the difference. If I had forgotten to wear one shoe would someone have noticed? I imagine they would because it is not an accepted practice to walk around wearing only one shoe. Also too, it may have been more of a bigger deal if I or someone had pointed it out.

I am sitting watching the election results and I think my shoes are trying to tell me something. Has this election become a big deal because it is? Or is it a big deal because we have the media telling us it is. If we were not having our eyes pointed so often at this issue or that, would the American people really feel the difference? Should we be looking at what is different? Or are we having our eyes redirected away from what which is blatantly missing. I believe we are being scammed by the idea of the first this or that and the word "change." We may soon all be walking around with only one shoe. That would be change. The sad part is, no one will say there is something wrong with that, but you can be sure they will have us believing it is perfectly normal.