Bowling Shoes

Have you ever gone bowling? It is a pretty fun game. A little on the expensive side in my opinion, but fun nonetheless. In bowling you go to a bowling alley and rent a lane and some shoes, because the lanes are polished hardwood and in order to keep those lanes in top condition shoes with clean soles are required. Those of us who only bowl once in a blue moon end up renting a pair of shoes instead of investing in our own. The problem with the rented pair (for me) is that they rarely ever fit correctly. Most of the time it is not an issue, but I do recall once when I happened to get an ill-fitting pair. I try not to cause a lot of static in situations like that. I realize that when you deal with the public, people can be very demanding and overly ‘picky’ when it comes to how they want things, so I try to lessen that as much as possible. So in doing so, I bowled a couple of games in the uncomfortable shoes. It was terrible. It totally threw off my game, not to mention the blisters on my feet from the odd places they were rubbing (and yes, I am blaming the shoes, before you say anything). My point in this story is that they were not MY shoes. I didn’t buy them. I didn’t break them in. I hadn’t walked anywhere in them up until the point I tried to bowl in them. There was nothing wrong with them aside from that fact. So think of this when you hear someone say; ‘don’t judge them until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes.’ Instead just don’t judge them at all. You will never be able to understand why someone makes the decisions they make unless you have lived their entire life, and then you wouldn’t be you anymore. Sometimes it is your shoes that make you an individual, and something special.