It’s the time of year when women like to show off their pretty feet. That is women who have pretty feet. Let me be the first to tell you that I’m not one of them. My feet are so ugly that they would make a podiatrist recoil. And, if ever there is a TV show featuring the world’s ugliest feet, I will go toe-to-toe to convince you that I am a shoe-in to win first place.
There might be some saving grace for my right foot, but the left one puts its counterpart to shame. Lefty has a bunion that looks like a swollen golf ball, and it has a hammer toe to boot. The toe next to the hammer has a small bump. And though the middle toe has no defects, the one beside the pinkie has twin corns but the littlest piggy has none.
When I was a child, my mom, like most moms do, would take me shoe shopping and have me try on the shoes while in the store. She would press down and around the toe area to see if I had wiggle room and then tell me to walk around. If I assured her that the shoes felt “Good.” and she was satisfied that my feet had adequate space, she would buy the pair. But occasionally, a day or two later while wearing those cute shoes, my dogs would start yelping. It was as if the shoes had magically decreased a size after we brought them home.
When I became an employed young adult, living on a shoestring budget, I still, occasionally and inadvertently, bought ill-fitting shoes, mainly because I liked the style. One thing overlooked for years was that I had wide feet. The cute narrow shoes that I favored, especially the pointy ones, often scrunched my toes. My feet are a testament to years of wearing uncomfortable shoes.
I am not ashamed to share this information. I’ve lived with ugly feet for most of my adult life, and those dogs have become more unattractive as I’ve aged. Experts confirm that years of wearing constricted shoes contribute to disfigured feet. They also say that bunions can be genetic. (Thanks, Grandma.) And although I have never been a fan of high heels, podiatrists say that those popular shoes are one of the biggest contributors to foot problems. Don’t take my word for it, just check out the Listcovery website and look at how many celebrities having barking dogs. Make sure you scroll through all 23 photos. You won’t believe the pretty faces that belong to the ugly feet.
Back in the day, I used to feel envious whenever I saw women with pretty feet, toenails all pedicured and polished, wearing beautiful sandals. During that time, if I bought sandals at all, I’d buy toe-in sandals. They kept me in my comfort zone. And although I have always had a love/hate relationship with my feet, as I age I am loving my ugly feet more than hating them. I am self-confident enough to know that those pitiful-looking dogs don’t discount that inside this body is a beautiful person.
So, one day I decided to stop worrying about my feet and bring them out of the closet.
Speaking of closets, when I look on my closet shelf today and see several boxes of shoes, some of them never worn, I feel guilty, because I know that somewhere there are people who have only one pair of shoes to their name. Others have none at all. And these days I unashamedly wear my open toe sandals whenever I feel like it because I know that there are worse things in the world than having ugly feet. I only need to remind myself of a variation of the words of Denis Waitley: “I had the blues because I had no shoes until upon the street, I met a man riding a board with wheels because he had no feet.”