How many pairs of shoes do you own? More than 5? More than 10? Or are you more like Imelda Marcos who famously owned over 3,000 pairs of shoes?
It might seem like an odd question to start a blog post with and there will be some people immediately thinking it's an unfair question because "women naturally will have more shoes than men" blah, blah, blah. But put all the sexist bullshit aside for a minute and just answer the question honestly. I'm not looking for reasons or excuses as to why you have as many pairs of shoes as you do, I'm just looking for the number. No doubt many of you are also thinking that I shouldn't be asking you this question without first answering it myself, so fine; I have 14 pairs of shoes. Happy? Now answer the question.
As I said, I'm not interested in any reasons or excuses as to why you've got so many shoes, why you need these ones for work, those ones for the gym and you "just had to buy these ones because they were so cute" or whatever helps you justify it to yourself. What I am interested in is whether all those shoes make you happy. Do they make you happy? I can safely say that for me, having so many shoes is quite frankly a real ballache. And to make matters worse it's a ballache I brought on myself because I couldn't tell the difference between want and need. Or because, like so many of us, I listened to that lying little inner voice that said "you want these shoes, you need these shoes, these shoes are going to make you so happy".
Well, I'm telling you that none of my shoes have ever made me blissfully, ecstatically happy. Yes, they've gone with outfits, yes they've been useful for certain occasions and yes, I can absolutely justify every single pair I've bought in some way, shape or form if I have to. But they haven't made me happy. They have made me buy more wardrobe space, they have made me buy extendable racks to house them on in my downstairs toilet and they have made me into a monster that thinks it's okay to bin a pair of shoes when the sole breaks because (and here's the kicker) I've got plenty of other pairs of shoes. Despite such initial love and need for shoes, I've ultimately come to treat them with disdain and am happy to throw them away because they're easily replaced.
So by now you're probably thinking what does this dude have against shoes? Why's he making such a big deal out of this, they're just shoes. To be fair, some of you may have completely forgotten why you started reading this and are now thinking that this guy is off his rocker. But please, bear with me, I promise that there is some point to me making you think existentially about your choice of footwear. Unfortunately, the next bit also comes in the form of a question. Do you know how many pairs of shoes my Grandfather had? A man born in Ireland between the world wars, who joined the Royal Marines to see the world and tell stories about it, to fight for his country in World War II which he's never breathed a word about to any of us. Do you know how many pairs of shoes he had?
Of course you don't, but I bet a few of you are already hazarding a guess. I'll tell you. That man owned two pairs of shoes. Okay, okay, okay three pairs if you count his carpet slippers. Two pairs of outdoor shoes. One pair of dress shoes, saved for best, for church on Sundays, for special occasions and for meeting friends from his old unit. One pair of everyday shoes, which were used for everything, everyday. Did his shoes make him happy? You know what, I think they actually did. He took pride in his shoes, looked after them, cleaned them regularly, applied polish, waterproofing, new laces and always whistled a cheerful tune whilst he did it. As children of the late 70's and early 80's, my brother and I would often ask him why he looked after them the way he did and his answer was always; "It's simple, you look after things and they look after you".
Which is where my rambling writings were going to initially and I thank you for your patience if you're still here reading this. The word that stuck with me was 'simple'. I found myself considering this whilst swearing under my breath at how my own children had opened the door to the downstairs toilet after school and just discarded their shoes, leaving them to fall where they may on the floor and not on the carefully constructed racks intended to house them. Simple. And it dawned on me that we, as human beings, collect a lot of stuff in our lifetime. We collect a lot of stuff that we probably don't need to, that probably we don't need and that actually cause us a great deal of stress. And I'm not just talking about shoes anymore, but everything from books, DVDs, shirts, dresses to people, opinions, grudges, and just basically baggage. Stuff that we drag around with us, weighing us down, cluttering up our lives and heads.
Do we need it? Personally, I'm not sure that we do. The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that I don't. Which brings me on to my next few thoughts on the subject. It's made me think that actually I need to simplify almost everything in my life. I need to simplify the way I work, work smarter, not harder. I need to simplify what I eat, go back to basic ingredients and not rely upon the horror-filled items from the supermarket. I need to live much more simply, to focus on what's important to me, instead of of worrying about things I can't possibly change. You can see where this is going right? I mean I'm not about to up sticks and become a full-time, off-grid spoon whittler just yet, if that's what you were thinking. But I think there's a lot I could do personally, with my family and in/around my home to achieve a more simple lifestyle.
Will it make me happy? Or at the very least, less angry? I guess we'll just have to wait and see.