Lorena's Epiphany

The Stories Shoes Tell

January 12, 2010 at 3:28 pm 1 comment

Seems the only inspiration I’m drawing on these days is from this book I’m reading (Little Ghandi by Elias Khoury). As a follow-up to the previous post, little Ghandi (the main character of the story) is a shoe shiner on Bliss Street who works right by Faisal snack. The character is too well-defined to not be inspired by a real one. I keep picturing the old shoe shiner from when I was in college.

Photograph by Rafism - Click on the photo to see more of his work

There’s a certain wisdom to be had from that sort of job. Here’s a caption to make you think twice about the condition of your shoes:

“The shoes were endless. Ghandi could tell a man’s personality from his shoes: worn-out shoes were a sign of carelessness, shoes that were always like new were a sign of fearfulness, shoes that weren’t laced properly were a sign of sexual potency, shoes with the backs folded down like slippers were a sign of craziness.”

People talk endlessly about the power of body language, but what you wear on your feet says a lot too. And so what if I’m a girl. It’s proven true! I read in a body language book recently that interviewers will always check the back of the interviewees shoes as they walked out to determine their mental state.

And ok, if it’s a woman or a gay man (no offense), they will be checking your shoes out for other reasons too.

I still remember my first pair of fancy shoes. They were sandals with multiple thin black straps that wrapped across my foot and buckled right below my ankle. My toes peaked out a little in the front. I must’ve been around 6 years old at the time and would actually look forward to waking up the next morning just to put them on. Funny how these kind of random memories stick with you.

Wait, who am I kidding? I still do that!

Entry filed under: Floating. Tags: Elias Khoury, Little Ghandi, mental state, shoe shiner, shoes.