Boots or Bare Feet: Who Knows Truth, Conservatives or Liberals?

(I am neither a Celtic bard nor a rhyme master,

but read the following as a poem.)

Conservatives wear boots and plant their feet on solid ground, ground firmed up and hardened by tradition and the authority of honored ancestors.

Liberals walk barefoot in order to keep their footing on ground made slippery by the water of new knowledge.  They put more trust in the “feel” and “experience” of standing.

           

The question is which is more certain for treading the path of “truth.”  Is truth in the soil beneath our feet or in the breeze cooling our toes. Each of us decides how we are most comfortable—in boots or barefoot.

           

But “truth” is not always comfortable.  A secure foothold on truth must involve both outward “assurances” and inward “feeling.” 

           

I was told recently of a person who had experienced the two kinds of footing.  He didn’t use the metaphor of “boots or bare feet,” but he captured the difference between conservatives and liberals in a prosaic but still beautiful expression.  In pursuing a graduate degree he attended two seminaries, one liberal and one conservative.  He said the conservative school told him “what” to learn, while the liberal school taught him “how” to learn. 

The problem with conservative, weather proof boots is that when summer comes your feet get sweaty in them; when it rains, the boots get soaked and need and a few days to dry out.  Liberal bare feet are more in touch with nature.  If your feet get hot or wet, you don’t need to shop for new feet to adjust to changes in the climate. When Galileo looked through his new telescope and kicked off his worn out boots, the church told him he could not walk into their sanctuaries barefoot.  Guess who had the best approach to “knowing” the best footware for the path of life? Ill fitting boots cause blisters with much walking, and when they get muddy you can’t wear them in the house.  Bare feet toughen up and need only an occasional flush of water to stay fresh.

As the song writer put it about a hand of cards, “You need to know when the hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em.”  I keep a pair of boots on hand, but they don’t slip on easily and need double knotting.   When I go to the beach for a day of rest and rejuvenation, I leave my boots at home.  Bare feet  are the rave at the beach.  Boots are for clod hopping.

But beware! The security offered by both hard and soft stances is prone to misapplication and interpretive distortion.  Shoe salesmen are in the pay of the store manager. Truth does not come in a one size fits all shoebox at a Payless Shoe store. Maybe a pair of no-slip sandals is a good compromise for everyday tromping. 

If you like playing with metaphors, try thinking of the Earth as the Garden of Eden, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil as a shoe store.  Remember, we are born (created) with bare feet.  If your path is strewn with dirt clods, don’t pick a pair of boots off the Tree rack. Let your feet lead you to a better tendered path. A good foot massage evens out the stress of life’s uncertainties.  Conversing with a hidebound “conservative” can be like massaging a foot-filled boot.