Friday, February 9, 2007

Sacrificing Your Shoes

It's Friday. Could life BE any better?

I was reading National Geographic magazine last weekend. OK. I was looking at the pictures in National Geographic magazine. The articles are usually a little..boring. Not always. Sometimes I read the articles.

Anyway. Did you know that ten of the twelve astronauts who landed on the moon left their boots there? They had a strict weight allowance on the lunar mission so, in order to bring back some lunar rocks, they had to leave their boots behind. They are still there. Just sittin' there in the lunar dust. Huh.

So I was thinking about this. This is why I couldn't be an astronaut. (the only reason, of course) I wouldn't want to leave my boots behind. Not to be sexist or anything, but those astronauts were all guys. I think a woman would have had to think twice about leaving her boots behind. Of course, we are not talking about a pair of high heeled, strappy sandals from Manolo Blahnik. Those you would have to wrench out of the girl astronaut's hands while she wept and wailed. (Remember when someone stole Carrie's sandals at that party? The horror!) (Oh, she was also mugged for her shoes once.) I guess the lunar boots were not quite that important. They probably had backup pairs in their lockers at NASA.

Here's my philosophy about shoes. If the shoe fits, buy it in every color. I still regret not buying those navy boots when I bought the brown and black pair. What was I THINKING? But shoes and boots are important to us. We love them. We will sacrifice money (who needs to eat?) and dignity (I need those black leather boots on sale for 1/2 price MUCH more than you - get out of my way!) and comfort (What limp? This is how I always walk when I wear my stiletto heeled red pumps with the darling polka dot bow on the toe.) for them. They can make any outfit. They can raise our self-esteem and self-confidence. They can help us get a job. They can help us take bad news. They can help us celebrate good news. They can make us feel just superior enough when we see that mean girl from high school at the mall and she has on tacky shoes from Wal-Mart.

What we can't do with them is leave 'em on the freakin' moon.


3 comments:

Sarah said...

I totally agree...who would ever leave their shoes??? Toss out the extra crap from the ship like empty food containers and maybe a blanket or something....but not the shoes! Clearly these are people who have not thought about what is most important. THere is always a way to get everything home...just ask anyone who goes christmas shopping at an outlet mall! (my mom tossed out a stoller to get all the packages home once...no joke)

Anonymous said...

I could easily leave behind some old shoes. After a year or two, I send my old shoes and boots to Good Will. So if I was going to have to leave shoes or boots on the moon, I'd just leave something I was going to donate to Good Will anyway!

LizzyBee said...

I totally still think I got my current job because I had on this great pair of pink pumps with a bow on the toe that totally perfectly matched my pink tweed suit.