Look down at your feet. Have you looked at them lately? Those things have been your ride or die since day one. They keep you going even though you never pay attention to them. Fun fact: a vast majority of the human population was born with feet. These appendages led the Industrial Revolution, walked the Million Man March, and staked their claim on foreign soil. These feet guide us to do things unlike ourselves, and are with us when we dance to the beat of whatever emotion is within us.
The child’s foot that traveled through Mozambique amidst a civil war in search of water braved territory that was beyond it’s safety zone. It callused and opened. The earth that held it up betrayed it by infecting it. The child entrusted his feet to provide for his family. He sprinted past the land mines in hope for sanctity in liquid form. His conditions are poor but, his aspiration is equivalent to the child in America that hopes to get One Direction tickets close to the catwalk. The child in search of water is more than the embodiment of trust but the poster-child for aspiration during a time in which he was the bread winner of his family; living in a location in which the bread winner is the only family unit that is capable of leaving a hiding place to search for water. I hope she got her tickets by the catwalk.
Living in Atlanta, Georgia, I am extremely blessed. I have a roof over my head and so many commodities that I absolutely do not deserve. I have a closet that stores my shoes that I use to protect my feet. I only need one pair but I have several. I drive my car to the mall and to coffee shops that I practice my right to consume in unnecessary activity like drinking coffee and buying… more shoes. Whenever I go to the mall in the city, little do I realize, I am actually in the city that is home to the largest sexual slave trade industry in the world. I buy my clothes in the city that has earned over $290 million in five years due to the distribution of humans. A girl uses her feet to walk herself to school only to be captured by a man that will hold her against her will so that he may make money from her body. She trusted her feet until they were lifted from the ground and thrown into a van. She trusted her feet.
When I use my feet to walk up the hardwood stairs to get to my air conditioned room I hope they fall from under me because I take them for granted. I trust my feet to get me places until they start falling out from under me. Living is so simple in this time and in this location. As a generation, we have forgotten about our feet because we are blinded by the pixels on our computer screen. I wish that pixels could scream our names. I wish they could shake us and inspire us to stop taking our lives for granted. As a culture of people that are far too privileged than we realize, it is time to begin fighting for reality. Fighting ourselves to begin looking beyond what we see. We need to realize that our feet can walk the distance that people who changed our world at once did. We all have feet that look so different but serve the same purpose. Whether your feet are functional or not, they represent travel. They symbolize the ability that man has to walk out every dream that he has. The world is full of opportunity. It has clay that is able to be changed and morphed into anything. So use it.
Look at your feet again. They are full of capability to carry out your dreams. Whether callused, manicured, high-heeled, sneakered, or bare, they are vessels to the next destination you desire to travel. Your feet are objects that have the ability to make you left of center. They are creative vagabonds that bare pigmentation of the creator. Some people are not granted the ability to utilize their vessels due to lack of physical motor function or lack of opportunity within the oppression of their nation. Your feet are what grant you the chance to carry our your desire. Look at your feet; walk with your feet.
Written by: Lyncoln Doggett
Photo by: Lyncoln Doggett
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