The Evergreen Journal #18

For women, shoes are the most important. 

Good shoes take you good places.

― Seo Min Hyun

 In retrospect we often can see a much larger picture.  

I will speak more about the reward I selected when I accomplished the goal of completing my academic degrees and getting a job that was my desired goal. Yes, on the first day when I delivered my lecture on art history, I was wearing a particular pair of shoes that I bought for this occasion. But, of course, no one knew that. The reward was just for me, very private and personal. The new pair of shoes was a secret I had carried inside of me for years. But I did not know that at the time. It has been many years since that first day of lecturing to my humanities class. I realize as I write that it often takes many years of experience to understand where an idea comes from and how long ago that idea was growing inside our minds.  

I need to relate some additional information on some experiences that influenced my decisions.

One of the most valuable lessons I learned early in my art history studies is that nothing happens in a straight line. Instead, many bars and intersections interact with the present moment, the past, and the future.

As I sat in my seat in the art history classroom, I saw our professor enter the room. She introduced to me new perspectives to my own understanding every time.

Brilliant teachers challenge students to become excellent scholars.  I learned to do my research from primary sources and dive deep beneath the surface of every aspect of art history, from architecture to objects to landscapes from the ancient past to the present.  Her courses propelled me into my own career in the arts and literature with an unwavering dedication to reach my intended goal of becoming a professor myself. She was my role model.

As you already know, I decided to pursue my academic career when I was forty-two years old. At that time, I was a mother of five children. Two of our children were adopted from Korea and Vietnam. I was married to Bob. We met when I was fifteen, and we got married when I was seventeen (You can read about this story by visiting The Evergreen Journal # 10 Read it here.

One day I was worried, because one of the children needed a new pair of shoes. At the time, a good pair of shoes was about $20.00. We did not have the money to go buy the shoes. We lived on a very tight budget. I was so worried about how we would ever get the shoes that I went upstairs to my bedroom so I could pray about this need. I was weeping, and I laid out this problem before God that day. I went over all the details of why we needed to buy a pair of shoes and how we did not have the money to do it. When I had exhausted myself with worries, I wiped off my tear-stained face and walked back down the stairs.

As I reached the final step, I heard someone knocking on the front door. I opened the door and saw a man standing there smiling. At the same time, the man extended his right hand toward me. When he reached out, he spoke directly to me.

“I am so sorry it has taken me so long to give you this. Several years ago your husband did a job for me in his garage and I never paid him. Every time I drive past this house I feel guilty because I still owe him this money.  

I reached out and took the $20.00 bill he placed in my hand. As he turned to leave, the tears began to flow again. We now had the twenty dollars we needed to buy our child the shoes.  Later, when i told my husband what happened, he had no memory of this man and did not remember that anyone owed him this money.  We never knew who he was.

As I grew up in my own childhood home, I had many memories of getting a new pair of shoes. But, it was a rare occasion. In fact, one day my friend, One of my neighborhood friends was sitting on a log beside me. We were talking together as little girls do. But, she had a razor blade in her hand, and as we spoke, she was scraping away at the bottom of one of her shoes.

““Hey, what are you doing to your shoe?” I asked.

“My friend replied, “I am trying to make a hole in  the bottom of this shoe to get a new pair. “

Nothing more was needed. I suppose most kids in our neighborhood knew one thing for sure. You would never get a new pair of shoes unless the ones you have are worn out. Most of the other kids in our neighborhood likely had just two pairs of shoes. One is for wearing to church and school. The other pair is for playing outside and every day. Shoes were precious and personal possessions in my home. We learned very early to never waste anything, including shoes that were still good to wear. I don’t remember if my friend managed to get a hole in her shoe hat day. Somehow those little details get lost in the history of our life stories. However, the important thing I remember is that my friend graduated at the top of our high school class.

In my next article, I will tell you  about the dream I wore on my feet in all of my visions for my future.

To wear dreams on one’s feet is to begin to give a reality to one’s dreams.

 – ~ Roger Vivier

*I want to remind you that YOU WERE BORN To WIN, but you have to have a clear plan to get there to be the winner you were born to be. From,  Born to Win, by Zig Ziglar. Page 37.

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