Tennis shoes and Sandals

So we went to the Aim graduation banquet last night, probably the last one we'll attend-- at least until we start meeting more Aim students. I knew about 5 people in the graduating class, one of them being the younger sister of my own Aim teammate. But in the last class and the current class, I know a grand total of zero (0) people. So I do not see many Aim graduations in my future.

And I only write about it here because of what I wore. Now, I am not at all a normal 20-something woman who knows all about clothes and shoes. If I ruled the world, we'd all wear scrubs to work, capris and T-shirts in our spare time, and skirts and tights would be banned. And high heels (although I have no objection to platform shoes). Anyway, I do normally dress up for Aim banquets, but this year, we had to walk there (or, as I've heard it said, we took the "shoe-leather express"). So we both went in slacks, nice tops, and tennis shoes. The best outfit in the world can be made to look very casual when you put tennis shoes on with it.

As often happens to those who use their shoes a lot, Chad and I both need new ones. I have three pairs of tennis shoes, he has two, and none of them have any tread left. Well, that's kind of important. And when we buy shoes this time, we'll have to get good quality, substantial ones that can stand up to us walking a few miles every day. So this will take some looking, comparison shopping, and so on. If anyone would like to offer suggestions, they would be highly appreciated, because I know next to nothing about shoes. I know which foot they go on, and that's about it.

And as we were walking, we were talking about God and his promises. I am so blessed to have a husband who cares passionately about studying the Bible and sharing what he's learned. But our topic led my brain to wander and think about Jesus and his disciples, who walked everywhere they went (no cycling for them!) wearing sandals. And not the comfortable sandals we have today. I don't know what their shoes were made of, although I would guess either wood or some reeds woven together in a complicated way. And they walked for miles in them! I discussed this with Chad and a friend of ours (another younger sibling of my former teammate) after the banquet last night, and Chad pointed out that the sandal-wearing was the reason for the practise of washing feet being an integral part of hospitality at the time. Personally, I also think this is why they ate lying down-- just to get your feet elevated a bit and off the ground. As someone who has experienced a blood clot in my leg from too much standing, I shudder to think what it would be like to have one in an age in which not only was it undiagnosable, but it was certainly untreatable! Anyway, I don't know if they had the same kind of thorns and sticker bushes to deal with as we do, but I imagine there was some form of it. I can't walk around in sandals without getting a sticker in my toes. So what a walk that must have been for Jesus and his disciples-- going along, dust blowing, hot day, and every few feet someone has to stop to remove a thorn from his foot. And another thing we talked about last night was blisters. Did people in that time develop some serious callouses an early age, so that their feet would not be continually covered in blisters? I would certainly hope so. I hate to think the shape my feet would be in if I walked to work, or to church (4 and 3 miles away, respectively), in sandals. I wouldn't be walking for a few days after that, that's for sure.

Okay, so I've written an entire post about shoes. I can't believe it. Oh, and just as a side note, I saw a friend from waaay back in my summer camp days last night. He's in town to visit someone over spring break, and he came to the Aim banquet as well (he is also an ex-Aimer). So it was cool to see him, and maybe we'll have a chance to catch up a bit this week.