u/SoggyValuable6575

I thought about one idea. Its statistically close to impossible in reality but just as an idea. In every country in the world there are some people who really like walking barefoot and will certainly never react negatively to whoever they see without shoes even in public places. But for many of them (if not most) possible negative reactions from other are a barrier that makes walking barefoot in most places (with exceptions like beach or informal park) something from socially risky to impossible (yeah, apart from you lucky NZ/AU/some other warm coastal relaxed areas residents). So wouldnt it be awesome if it just somehow happened that for each country all people who like walking barefoot a lot turned out to be in one town/city or a few neighborhood towns? Like everyone who enjoys it a lot is in one town, everyone else (who finds being barefoot anywhere else apart from beach or park at most) would be in all other cities and towns and so everyone in such town would be absolutely free to walk barefoot anywhere with zero probability of social disapproval. And everyone who finds being barefoot in public places bad/disgusting/weird/unhygienic/immoral/... would very rarely see people walking barefoot down the street. I guess if it happened to be this way (such distribution of people across cities/towns) all people who enjoy walking barefoot would be so happy:) And at the same time people with very high standards for an appropriate look would probably a thousand times more rarely meet those impolite uncivilized mentaly unstable weirdos (guess its close to what some people think about barefooters lol). I think purely theoretically it is possible but of course statistics says its less likely than throwing a coin one million times in a row at one side. Do you think its okay to have such dream at all? Do you think it would be good if it somehow (statistically close to impossible) but still happened? Probably even in the least barefoot friendly country (very conservative or extremely formal) there could be enough people who enjoy it for a small town:) It would be so awesome feeling: you know that your hobby is pretty rare in general but exactly where you live its very common so you can enjoy it every day everywhere without any social friction.

You know, im really sure if just randomly it turned out to be this way, it would be such a paradise for everyone who likes it (including me of course 😀). Coming out of home without having shoes on, feeling every piece of floor before leaving building and then feeling dirt or asphalt with every step melting into the sensation. And then walking to whatever public place you would usually go (shop/mall, school/work, music concert, bus/train/metro, doctor if need to, office, bank, any place) without even little possibility of someone else thinking or saying anything bad or unpleasant about how weird you are and how unhygienic/improper/immodest this is:) It would be such a luck for people who like doing it but are limited by possible judgements from other people and negative social consequences. Dont know about you but i personaly would most likely be barefoot always when temperature is lets say between 5C and 35C (41F and 95F). Ah, sweet dreams... Hypothetical place where walking without shoes could be seen by society as normal as not having gloves lol:)

Idea here came to me most from my own experience. When i started walking barefoot this year (around 1.5 months ago) i could walk for around 60-70 minures and after that feet started hurting because of skin irritation. I really did not want to put shoes back on but when each next step brings more pain than pleasure there is no options really. It was Saturday and i sadly could not repeat it on Sunday because every step gave some pain. Managable at home floor but enough to spoil the walk. A few weeks later i was finally able to use both weekends which was really awesome. Last weekend i walked for 100 min Saturday and 120 Sunday which a month ago i could not even dream about. And i was really surprised with the fact that discomfort at the end of last walk was not from skin irritation (like what ended all my walks before) but something deeper, like muacle tirediness. So the idea itself is that feet have 2 stats that measure how long you can walk barefoot before discomfort. 1st stat is skin durability, 2nd is muscle stamina. So like everyone at the start has some number of points in both. Each step spends a few points, numbers for each stat depend on the surface. Asphalt spends more skin durability but little muscle stamina. Sand is opposite to it. I from start had more muscle stamina points so 1st months skin irritation said me "enough or it will hurt" before muscle tirediness could be felt. Then skin durability increased and so now the bottleneck is muscle stamina. Guess for people lucky enough or self confident enough to walk barefoot every day in most places both these stats are very high. I see it as stats of a character in a videogame. Maybe more experienced people here comment that there is also some 3rd stat which im not aware of yet.

First month of walking barefoot this year i had no idea that muscle tirediness from walking barefoot can lead to discomfort. I never for real thought about walking barefoot requiring work from some muscles that are doing almost nothing in shoes. Even though i heard about walking barefoot strengthening feet muscles but for me then this information was like something very abstract, like some scientific facts from that very thick clever book with latin names for all bones lol. But when finally adapting skin so that i could enjoy barefoot walks for longer (and both weekends) then muscles were like: "hey, you know we also exist and we are tired so put on shoes now and we can do it again later".

Have anyone experienced something similar? I mean when skin became thicker and you can walk barefoot longer but then you realize that muscle tirediness can also be a limiting factor here? Would be nice to see stories of anyone who started not long rime ago like me. Or maybe someone walking barefoot 24/365 for a few years being like "what skin irritation? What muscle tirediness? I cant even remember having any of that":)

I enjoy walking barefoot and almost always do it in a nearby park. Its not special barefoot park, just usual one. I do it in summer, sometimes late spring and early autumn. As expected, i dont have enough time to walk in a park every day so usually do it only in weekends. My favourite surface is sand (as i guess for most people here), second is dirt. Asphalt feels pleasant but only for like 5-10 minutes, after that feet start feeling gradually increasing discomfort that after some number of steps becomes pain:( Gravel... is there anyone here who does not hate gravel? And most often walking barefoot in saturday gives pleasure but also makes feet tired (irritated) so doing same thing next day becomes very questionable (usually i dont do it because even stepping at floor gives some discomfort). So it means that even though i have 2 days for walking barefoot in a park (per week), in reality i can use only one because of discomfort feeling after it for the next day.

Im really envious people who live in New Zealand and less Australia because they can walk barefoot nearly everywhere without any strange looks/talks, not only in a park when its warm day:) I know some of you will probably comment "you can also walk barefoot not only in a park but in most places, its not a crime and its not forbidden by any law" but looking so different from people on the streets is something i really dont want. I mean i dont want any people to say something like "yo have u seen that strange dude", want to avoid attracting attention if possible. I guess most people in this subreddit are a lot more decisive than me and will probably laugh at me in the comments. But maybe some have attitude pretty close to mine:) Enjoying walking barefoot, doing it in a park in weekends and being envious (in a kind way) people living in NZ:)

At the end a question. Have you experienced that feeling like "its nice warm day for a barefoot walk but my feet are irritated after yestarday so sadly i need to miss this day (because if i do walk it will bring more discomfort and pain than pleasure)"? Is it possible to never have irritation after walking barefoot?

I have never shared this to any human being i know and when u read it all you will understand why. When i was around age of 10 or 11 years (so close to 14-15 years ago) i was living with my grandparents for 2 months in summer. It was a countryside. My ability to play videogames was very limited so most of the time i was outside of house, often played with children my age. Not because it was too interesting but because i had nothing more interesting to do. Sometimes there were some cats in a street (more like yard). And with one cat (small as far as i can remember, likely a kitten) i and a few other children have done really bad things. One of us was holding a cat and another was striking a cat with some stone or part of brick. We damaged cat's paw (foot) or a few so that it was pretty visible. I can clearly remember cat's blood. I dont remember if cat died because of our actions. But cat definetely felt big pain and was screaming. I cant describe to myself why was i so cruel. Maybe cat could have done something to us but if so it was very small thing, definetely not deserving such painfull experience. Probably curiosity developed earlier than empathy. 15 years passed and i sometimes remember that cat. How could i be such a monster. Please forgive me cat!!! I want to cancel what i have done 15 years ago. Aaaaaaaaaaaaa. I want to travel back in time and save the cat from that 11 year old cruel version of myself. Im crying. Cat. :( im not religious person but deep inside i want to believe cat is in cats heaven. I cant undo what is done. I was so terrible. The only good thing i can say about 11 year old myself is that i definetely did not want cat to die.

Saying that i see or remember that cat every night would clearly be a lie, it does not happen. For all 15 years i was remebering that action not more than 10 time. But it cant change the fact that i have done such a horrible thing. I regret doing it so much. I want to believe that at least i did not kill that cat but i cant be sure even in that. As hard as it is i must admit to myself that probably i killed a living creature at age 11. Please no at least this. Poor cat... I dont know wheather from my description it looks possible that my actions caused cat's death also (not only pain, blood and scream). I want to say myself 'no' so much but reality tells me its probably yes.

Torturing that cat had no legal consequences for me then (because i was 10 or 11 and nobody exept a few more children knew i did it) and will clearly have none anytime so fear of it does not exist. But morally i feel so deeply wrong. If i still remember it after 15 years i will most likely remember it until my last day. It does not prevent me from living and even enjoying some things in life. But sometimes memories of that cat and that cruelty come to me and i question myself wheather its fair from my side to enjoy anything after doing so bad things to a living creature. Now when i think about what happened i catch myself on one thing. First need to clarify that no, i dont want to kill myself. And in reality im 100% sure no human will ever revenge that cat, nobody knows what i did. But purely theoretically if any humane comes to me with a gun and say: "i know what you have done with that cat, its time for revenge" i would not run or ask to live. I would say something like: "i know i do deserve it. Please just make it fast. In a head, ok? I dont want pain". I dont want or wish it to happen, just if it theoretically happened i think i would accept it as what is deserved, not resist.

Want to come in mental piece with that cat and to be forgiven by it.