Shoes

My friend Joseph has some seriously old ratty white sneakers. Ok, so they're only 4 years old. That's still very old for a pair of shoes that get worn every chance possible. Joseph loves his shoes because they're practical and comfortable. At one point they were completely white, but as the years went by, they picked up various bits of color. There's a green and blue stain on the side of one of them. I think it came from when we were painting the stage in preparation of our performance of A Year with Frog and Toad in which he played Frog. Great show. So great, in fact, that Joseph likes to carrying it around on his shoes it seems.
If you happen to be around him when he takes them off you might notice that the inside back is almost completely gone. In fact, it's so bad that it's actually worn a hole in one of his socks. Yet, he still claims his shoes are comfortable. They're plain enough for him to wear to nice occasions like Church and then anywhere else he needs to go afterwards. "People don't look at my feet that much," he says.
A couple years ago, I too had some shoes I adored. Mine were white, grey, and light purple sneakers (no picture, sorry).  Any time I couldn't wear my flip flops (which are still my favorite), I wore those sneakers. Eventually they became worn out, but not nearly as worn out as Joseph's. They just lost all traction and stopped being comfortable. I think I had them about three years. I'm sure mine would have fallen apart like Joseph's in another year or so. Anyways, I managed to convince my parents that I needed new sneakers and got some awesome shoes.

You see, the moment I stepped into those overprices sneakers, my feet felt heaven. The sensation has sense worn off, but it was amazing how different those new shoes felt from the old. I had actually forgotten that shoes do more than simply protect your feet. They can actually offer support for your back and make walking easier. Who knew?!
So now it is my goal to get Joseph some new shoes. He insists with sticking with plain white, and that's fine. We even did some research today to figure out his current type of shoes and what the newest version is and where we could look for it. Hopefully in this coming weekend we will go out shoe hunting and he will have the same marvelous comfortable experience that I had.