Jimmy Carter's Barfuss Erinnerungen (Hobby? Barfuß! 2)
In seinem neuen, sehr lesenswertem Buch "An Hour Before Daylight, Memories of a Rural Boyhood" erzählt Mr. Carter wie er von März bis Oktober ausschließlich barfuß ging, wie er das Gefühl der Freiheit und der Verbundenheit mit der Erde genoß, und auch wie er mit den kleinen Problemen, die das Barfußlaufen auf dem Bauernhof, im Feld, im Wald und in der Schule mit sich brachte, zurecht kam.
Vielleicht sollte Lorenz ihn zu einem Besuch auf einem Barfuß Pfad einladen. Ich könnte mir vorstellen, daß Mr. Carter sich dafür interessiert. Und auch sein Verleger, der da eine photo opportunity sehen könnte.
Hier ist ein Zitat. Falls jemand nicht genug Englisch versteht und das gerne lesen möchte, könnte ich es auch übersetzt posten.
From as early in May until as late in October as weather and my parents permitted, I never wore shoes. The first warm days brought not only a season of freshness and rebirth, but also a time of renewed freedom for me, when running, sliding, walking through puddles, and sinking up to my ankles in the ploughed fields gave life a new dimension. I enjoyed this sense of liberation until we boys began wearing shoes to church and school when we were thirteen years old and entered the seventh grade. Many of the men who lived on the farms went barefoot all their lives, except on cold winter days. There is no doubt that this habit alone helped to create a sense of intimacy with the earth. Although briars were a problem- particularly in early spring when our feet were tender-what I remember most unpleasantly was the hot top soil. It was enjoyable to walk behind a plow in a cool, newly opened furrow, but when we were pruning watermelons, fertilizing growing crops, or poisening boll weevils, our feet were in direct contact with the earth's sun-baked surface. The balls of our feet were thick and though, but it was painful when hot sand and friable earth would spill over onto the more tender top of our bare feet. On the hottest days, from noon to midafternoon, we had to resort to a kind of shuffling dance, with brief pauses under watermelon leaves or in other small shaded areas. In the barn lots and animal stalls, there was no way we could avoid walking in the accumulated manure, and, in fact, we never tried to do so. I had to help catch and harness the mules and horses, feed the chickens and hogs and help milk the cows each day; through it all, going barefoot was still preferable to wearing shoes. There were some disadvantages to bare feet. There was always the possibility of stepping on old barbed wire or a rusty nail, with the danger of tetanus. Another problem was at school. The pine floors were not sanded and polished but rough, the dust kept down by regular applications of old motor oil. We soon learned to pick up our feet with each step, because splinters were prevalent and a threat to bare feet that slid for even an inch across the surface. Our most common ailments were the endemic ground itch, ringworm, and the self inflicted splinters, cuts, abrasions, bruises, wasp or bee stings and what we called stumped toes.
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