No one could stop me from walking barefoot while that was my directive. I once fearlessly wandered barefoot along the rugged mountain paths of Co.Kerry Ireland. I’m not one to cave to social pressure! No, the thing that stopped me was learning of a particular parasite.
Meet the reason I wear shoes:
He’s a Hookworm. In many places you don’t have to worry about him because we humans have diligently waged war on these awful monsters. Yet, they’re still a bane in some rural areas, their awful larvae are passed to humans by stepping in contaminated dirt. The little blighters can break in through your feet and infect your body, burrowing and multiplying beneath your flesh, until you become a spreader too.
Ever since a colleague of mine caught hookworm I’ve been a lot less keen on walking barefoot. Furthermore, hookworm is really an extreme scenario. There are other hazards much more present in the environment that I recklessly ignored when I was younger such as ticks:
As a kid I learned how to remove ticks and then set fire to them. I was never told about the risk of Lyme’s Disease or any of the other complications and Tick can infect you with. It gives me the heeby jeebies to think back to all of the times I got bitten by ticks and didn’t think twice.
Walking barefoot can be really good for your health in the right circumstance. Personally, with these parasites in mind, I’ve taken to purchasing these really goofy shoes that give the benefits of walking barefoot while still keeping your feet covered:
So, yay for technology on that front. There’s clearly a reason we moved towards covering our feet and my money is that it’s because of a plethora of nasty bugs and parasites