Feet

I wrote this a couple of years ago but thought I would put it in today's blog. My writing class enjoyed it.
Feet

Glance down at the appendages at the end of your lower limbs. Do you like what you see? Do you feel affection for your feet? There are a good many people in this universe who feel not only affection for their own feet, but actually fall passionately in love with the feet of others.
How do I know this? Because I found, on the internet a web site dedicated entirely to the fetish of feet. The warning on the introduction conveyed the information that it was a restricted site, to be entered only by those persons over the age of eighteen. I clicked recklessly on, and proved once again that it is always possible to learn something new. These people were enamored with feet, and the descriptions of the activities they engaged in were graphic and embarrassing, even to a person sitting alone at the computer. Delicacy prevents further delving into this subject. Click onto Google and type in the word “feet” and find out for yourself.
I had hoped to get information on the subject of binding feet, practiced by the Chinese culture in days gone by. This cruel custom caused intense pain to the poor child so afflicted, and made her a virtual prisoner, since she could obviously not run away. A secondary benefit to her husband was the ectasy he experienced in the contemplation of her tiny shoes, used for purposes we can only guess at.
In our own culture, a code of secrecy prevailed. Why, I cannot imagine. The truth is, however, that a husband of the early years of our civilization was expected to see the feet and legs of his wife only after marriage. The female was allowed only to let the toe of her shoe peak out from under her skirt . Her ankle was never to be shown, and if she inadvertently lifted her skirts too high, as in descending from a carriage, the gentlemen present were expected to avert their eyes. Any man caught staring at a lady’s ankle could expect to be promptly knocked to the ground, or challenged to a duel. This seems incomprehensible to our descendants today, with the views front and back of the string bikinis paraded on the beach and from the edges of swimming pools. The movie star Billie Burke has been quoted as saying that her husband, Florence Ziegfeld would never have married her if he had seen her large feet and thick ankles before he proposed to her
But I have wandered far afield from the intent of this essay. I had intended to explore the damage we do to our feet in our usage of high heels, in our development of corns by the wearing of ill fitting shoes, by our bunions and funguses and ingrown toenails. My grandson has perfectly flat feet and my brother-in-law was handicapped with hammer-toes. If we can dredge up no affection for our own feet, we can take comfort in the sure and certain knowledge that out there, somewhere, there are perfect feet, viewable on the internet. Go click Google.
Seek and you shall find.