The Biped's Burden

I was attempting to pull off my best "good student" facade in class yesterday and I catch something very disturbing in my left-side peripheral vision. A foot. A bare, naked, human foot. I found the foot to be distressing. Not necessarily because the foot was gross, although it appeared to be in desperate need of a pedicure, but because of the impropriety of the situation.

Evidently I have some built in crazy that decides when it is and is not acceptable for feet to be bare. It's the context of the bare foot that is important to me. Bare feet in a house, no problem. Bare foot in a car, problem. Rationally there should be no difference in the context of the two situations. I can't think of or express any good reasons why a bare foot in a car is wrong. They just are.

However, as bad as bare feet in a car are (let's put them at mortal sin level,) bare feet in a class room are worse. New levels of worse. A bare foot in the classroom is easily a cardinal sin. The way I see it, if you aren't responsible enough to look after and clothe your feet in public places, then they should just be taken away from you.

I don't ask for much, only the smallest nod towards footwear. Looking down and seeing a mostly bare foot in a flip-flop would have been perfectly acceptable.

[I would have included a picture of foot with the post, but in deference to Jamey, and not want to find fetish cites at work, I've refrained.]