One day, when I went into the office in downtown LA, I saw a woman I know who was looking sad. When I asked her what's wrong she said, "Nothing, besides these birth control shoes." I looked down at her shoes, noticed that they were plain flats, but the shoes didn't seem to have remarkable powers. So, I asked her, "what's birth control shoes?" Her response was, "Shoes so ugly, no one would want to touch you." I laughed and hoped I didn't ever own a pair of birth control shoes.
----------You must then appreciate when I went to Haiti that I was told to purchase a pair of flat shoes that were not "fancy." Oh no! I thought to myself, I'm being forced to buy birth control shoes.
----------Turns out, birth control shoes are comfortable. They are easy to walk in. I like to be a low key person, so these shoes make me feel even more low-key than normal.
----------
Today, I decided to wear the birth control shoes because my feet were still tired from this weekend's walking marathon. When I walked outside, I was pleasantly surprised to see all of the green foliage that had sprouted up on the trees. Just two days ago, the majority of the plant life in DC was bare. The ground was hard from the cold weather. The only shine of life was the left-over glimmer of rain drops that persisted on a branch. But this morning, I walked outside and I saw flowers blooming on the trees, small leaves had broken through the tips of the branches exposing a most vibrant green, and the leaves of the cherry blossoms had begun to fall like snow onto the ground. The combination means that DC is springing to life in a major way all around me. And in turn, despite the birth control shoes, I found myself springing in my step down to the train station.
The birth control shoes also inspire me to let a little light from inside of me shine through to the outside. In the elevator on the way down to get a meal, I passed by the security officer and asked if she would let me back in despite having forgotten my badge. She looked at me curiously and said, "Sure, I'll let you in. Your badge is right there" and she pointed to a hook on my overcoat. In my attempt to be efficient this morning, I had hooked it to my outer coat, so I wouldn't forget it when I went outside. It was so safe, that I didn't remember where I had put it.... and no, I haven't dyed my hair blond since being in DC. I've always been this absent-minded. We shared a true, laugh-out-loud moment. The first one ever with this security guard.
On the way back up into the elevators, I ran into the same 2 people I had come down the elevator with. I joked that I knew that they must be out plotting and starting trouble, because they had only been out of the office for moments, yet were following me back inside. One guy retorted, 'Nope, we're just following you around.' When we stepped into the elevator, another person joined us, and I said to them, "I know trouble when I see it." To which I got the response, "hey, you don't even know that guy. You shouldn't just assume he's a bad guy." We all, except the new dude in the elevator, laughed. I guess he was not feeling the love.
At the end of the day, the birth control shoes inspired me to take another chance. My mother told me that when she first arrived to San Diego, she would take the bus around town to get to know the city better. With her good idea in mind, I hopped on the Circulator to head toward my house, with the knowledge that in the event that I got lost, at least my birth control shoes would be comfortable as I wandered home. To my surprise, I looked up on the ride home and somehow the bus driver had managed to circumnavigate DC and arrive even closer to my house than the metro would bring me!
These birth control shoes have certainly inspired me to continue on my adventures. Long live the bc shoes!
As an aside: While I worked on test cases for the social performance management software, I listened to a This American Life program called the Audacity of Government. As always, I found myself wrapped into the storyline. In this particular case, I was particularly intrigued by the story lines of the treatment received by widows whose American husbands died before the bureaucracy of INS had completed their paperwork. Having known a number of friends who have married people without legal American status, I immediately shivered at how the INS would react to a death in the middle of their "process." Sure enough, cold-hearted rejection.
No comments:
Post a Comment