A Shoe-In For That Special Day

It starts with baby booties that get looked at, pulled off and thrown across the room. Then, after watching a Disney video, a move to ruby slippers that get viewed in the mirror, shown off to the family, and placed lovingly in the closet. School necessitates wearing the correct shoes, whether honoring a dress code or acquiescing to peer pressure. Sports activities have specialized footgear complete with brand and color requirements.

But time offers a further account of shoes for dances, shoes for vacations, shoes for holidays and family celebrations. Open-toe, high heels, clog, sling-back and boot parade the seasons and set the mood. Shoes know, however, that looks are not everything, and so, invite you to have a relationship with them as well. They can flirt and flatter, support and sustain, and transport you to nirvana.

Indeed, people fall in love with their shoes and with shoes that are not theirs, even while belonging to someone else. "I just love your shoes" is surprisingly well received and often leads to a discussion of where and how you met. No wonder shoe matchmakers get paid a commission!

Cohabitation is the usual arrangement you have with your shoes, but some people are married to their shoes. Don't even think of walking a mile in those shoes.

Is it any wonder, then, that I imagine shoes when I think of celebrations of love. There's shoes that you drink champagne from, shoes that you expose your naked feet to, and shoes that have a place beside you in bed. I even know of an old lady who lives in a shoe.

Can there be a better or happier, more trusting or intimate, fashionably perfect union? For God's sake, bring these loved ones out of the closet and declare your heartfelt satisfaction with an affinity for footwear, famous or not. God has provided a suitable mate - one for another. And what God has joined, let no man deny.

Likewise, let no man think, let alone try, to get away with pinching, awkwardly maneuvering, and stymying a woman like her shoes can.

Some mysteries are better left to the shoe department. I'm sure there's a plan for a Valentine Day display that will knock your socks off or, at least, knock you off your feet.