Sole Mates

So as most of you know, I'm the queen of analogies. One of my greatest being from my college days, when I compared love and relationships to shopping for shoes. It's recently been revisited and expanded, and lately quite a few people (myself included) have been benefiting from it. Some say I should publish it. I don't think one analogy (as good as it is) could lead to a book deal so I'll start with the blog and see where it goes from there. Now, boys, you're thinking ok, the last thing I need to do is read a blog on shoe shopping but if any of you are having relationship issues or find it hard to let go of somebody, bear with me. Replace gender pronouns as appropriate.

It started out very simple. Dating = shopping for shoes. Checkout/purchase = marriage. Waiting in line to checkout = engagement. Trying shoes on = relationships. Now there are different levels to trying shoes on. If you're like me, you've spent most of your life just trying different shoes on the same foot, slip one on, slip it off, slip another one on. But to really see how the shoes look on you, you have to try the complete pair on. Maybe you were just too lazy to take off your other shoe (aka fear of commitment). You finally find a shoe you like and you decide to try it on both feet. You even walk around the store to see how it feels with each step. Some people get really lucky and find the right shoe with a perfect fit. But sometimes it doesn't quite fit. Is it wrong for you? First you have to figure out WHY it doesn't fit. If it's just a little loose or just needs some more support on the bottom, especially if you plan on wearing it a lot, you might be able to fix that with some insoles. Not a big deal. But if those shoes are a little tight, that's a bit more tricky. But you love how the shoes look on you. You make excuses - oh, my feet are swollen today (very possible in the summer with all that humidity) or you have on the wrong socks. Or you convince yourself that maybe you can break them in with enough wear. Watch out. True, it can happen but it's not reliable. And if it backfires, you're stuck with a pair of shoes that give you blisters. Just think, if you're already uncomfortable in these shoes while walking on the soft, cushiony carpet of the store, just imagine how it will feel when you hit the pavement.

"But I LOVE these shoes!", you say. You finally bring yourself to take them off your feet but you're still walking around the store with them, afraid to put them back on the shelf, worried that someone else will grab them before you've made up your mind about them. This is where fate comes in. If it was meant to be, it will be. Say you put them down and keep shopping, but you don't wander far because you want to keep tabs on those shoes. If another girl picks them up, tries them on and it's a perfect fit, it was meant to be for her, not you. And if she tries them on and has the same problem but takes them anyway, she'll get the blisters because she decided to settle.

Just keep shopping. Who knows? If you keep looking, you might find the perfect shoe after all, as long as you don't stay hung up on that other shoe. Say you come back to the store and you happen to still be looking for the right shoe. Suddenly you spot that same pair again, except now it's on sale. You try it on and it fits! Ok, NOW it's meant to be. Maybe you were wearing the wrong socks or your foot was swollen that day you first tried it on. Or maybe it was irregular, one foot fit you perfectly but the other was a little tight and you couldn't figure out why. Maybe it needed to go back to the manufacturer to get refitted.

Bottom line: don't settle for a shoe that isn't right for you. There's a reason why there's a strict return policy (divorce). Nobody wants a worn shoe that's had somebody else's foot in it. Granted, some will try to get away with returning it, saying that they didn't really wear it all that much. But that's just shady. What's that say about the shoe and the person returning it?

I know, it was a long analogy. But I hope it was worth the read. :)