FLIP-FLOP THEORY
What is it about a vacation that so totally rejuvinates your body, so fully recharges your soul? Is it the sun diverting your attention from the monotony which you are escaping? Maybe it is the lack of responsibility which accounts for that extra-relaxed feeling you get. No one really knows, of this I am quite sure, but everyone must have their theory. Mine involves flip-flops.
The flip-flop, by any definition a primitive shoe. Nothing more than two rubber slabs and some cloth inbetween the toes. Yet somewhere behind their simple structure is genius, whether intended or accidental. Yes, the flip-flop is definitely a vacation shoe, in that there is no question. It provides the foot with very little protection, which requires that it be worn in a friendly environment, one where shoes are not a necessity. I must state, however, that it is not the environment which makes the flip-flop vacational. It is the interaction between you and your flip-flop.
How do we wear most shoes? We must put our feet inside them, lace them up, and tighten the shoe so that our feet do not come out. It is necessary to do this, for fear that our shoes may come off, leaving our feet unprotected. These shoes fully encircle our feet, making the foot and the shoe (and the slight buffering area of the sock) one unit. When you move your foot, you do not think about how your shoe will react to that movement, you just assume that the shoe will follow. This is a benificial set up most of the time. It allows us to move around as if we were barefoot yet could walk on non feet-friendly environments like hot pavement or snow or glass. It takes our feet out of our concious minds and makes room for all the other things we must think about.
Enter the flip-flop. A shoe which is almost too far structurally and dynamically different from the rest that I question whether it should be termed one. The common notion of shoe moving with the foot it completly tossed out the window. The name alone signifies this, the constant slaping of the shoe between the foot and the pavement. This "shoe" is not one with your foot, it is only held to your foot by a thin strap of cloth. This principle of the flip-flop, its non-unison with your foot, is where the flip-flop theory finds its home.
Walking in flip-flops is a task which at first requires a concious effort. A person must always be on guard for inclines or slants and be able to adjust their control over the flip-flops. This is only at first though, for only when they realize that to be "one" with the flip-flop is unnecessary and impossible will they truly be wearing the flip-flops. When a person first begins to walk in flip-flops there is tension in their feet. They try unrewardingly to grasp the shoe between their toes and make it one with their feet. They slid the shoe, afraid it will fall completely off of their foot. They are constantly looking down at their feet, showing how much concentration it is requiring them to control their shoe. These people, although possibly physically on vacation, can never be truly on vacation.
There is a line which every flip-flop wearer out there has crossed. A single realization that they make unconciously. "I don't have to control these shoes, they will not fall from my feet. The more I attempt to control them, the more they effectively control me." Once the wearer has realized this, the ease of wearing this shoe is attained. Only once we realize that the shoe is not a part of our foot, yet moves with it, aids it in walking, can we truly be on vacation.
How does wearing a cheap shoe make up "on vacation"? Well, to answer that we must first understand what vacation truly is. Relaxation, plain and simple. It may involve a lack of things unrelaxing, which could be different for everyone, from school to work to going shopping. Vacation arises after a concious effort to erradicate some unrelaxing part of ones life. Here is were the flip-flop comes in. Upon the realization of the that is vital to wearing flip-flops, one notices a increased relaxing of the foot. This comes from the releasing of the toes attempting to hold on to the flip-flop for dear life as well as the lower leg accounting for all the changing variables of the walking surface. When we let the shoe move more independently all these stresses are relieved, and with that comes vacation.
While the flip-flop theory may not be for everyone, it most certainly has validity behind it. The shoe has always been a favorite of vacationers throughout the world, as the ideas behind it are universal. And I would say with near certaintly that between the people who wear flip-flops and those who do not, the former are the less stressed.