Written by Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee
Sometimes, I 'walk/run in other people's shoes' ... to see how it feels. By Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee.
Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee
Okay ... all of you have followed me for years ... that means you know ... I try 'to walk in others' shoes' ... to understand ... to feel ... to see if I want to do what they do.
You know I'm open-minded ... I understand people are different ... their experiences in life shape them just as they do, have my own life.
I'm always people-watching. I love to people-watch ... clothes, actions ... talking, laughing ... running ... walking. Just everything a person can possibly do ... I am fascinated.
I even 'try on different expressions' I see people use when doing, talking to someone ... or like telling the news.
Somehow ... sometimes, when I do that ... for a second ... 'I can feel them ... I can walk in their shoes for a moment ... I 'become' them for a moment'. Does it make sense? It does to me!
I feel happy things ... sad things all the way to the most ... awful things. My mind is constantly imagining ... how others feel ... why they do things. That's why I never intentionally hurt other people ... I know how it feels.
I never make fun of others ... I've known how that felt as a child, different times in my life like when I was sick with cancer ... they didn't realize I looked the way I did because of chemotherapy and being so sick. Yes, I realized what they were doing ... I was too sick to care.
Being made fun of when I was very sick was by someone I loved very much ... my sister ... though I never was around her. Skip was on the road ... this was some years ago ... my Grandmother Lola died ... she played such an important part of my life ... I drove for over an hour to get to her funeral.
My face was red from the chemotherapy drugs ... I wore a wig ... I honestly ... pure looked ... like Hell. I didn't feel well ... who could I tell? I didn't know my father's people and ... I'm glad I didn't. There wasn't one relative there at my Grandmother Lola's funeral who would have cared.
I dreaded going into my aunt's house ... have you ever felt so bad ... been so sick ... that each step you felt you were going to faint? That was how I was that terrible day.
When I did ... I noticed without appearing to notice (you all know how to do that I'm sure) ... my youngest sister sitting with her daughter-in-law ... they began laughing at me ... sometimes, out loud. Yes, I looked like Hell ... they had no idea I was battling for my own life.
I wished I had never gone to that funeral ... and by the time I realized what my Grandmother Lola had done ... I really wished I had never known her. There must have been a reason for me to be there ... I never saw it but, when I left there I was more devastated than when I got there. That's another story for another time.
Anyway ... when I tell you my little story of ... 'walking in someone's shoes this morning' ... know that I am not disrespecting anyone ... I know we all do the things we like to do to ... be ourselves.
Well ... I wanted to 'try someone on' ... so to speak. I'd been meaning to do that for a long time to just at least understand 'why?' they did ... that. I was going ... 'to walk in someone's shoes' to see how it felt!
By the time ... I 'tried them on' ... I wasn't thinking about them and wondering 'why they did that' ... it became 'what in the Hell am I doing and I hope no one is watching me'!
I was walking The Dukester this morning and the idea came to me to try something I'd been seeing for so long and wondered 'how in the world did they stand to do that?'
I reached around my waist ... pulled my jeans down to the bottom of the cheeks of my ..... I left my underwear in place and began ... walking The Dukester ... just like that.
Around the meadow we walked while I ... waddled with my jeans below my ..... I wanted to pull them up but, I deliberately didn't. I had to know how it felt.
I tried to run ... but, there wasn't anyway I could run. The Dukester jerked me forward and I nearly lost my pants! I was holding his leash ... and holding my pants up with my other hand.
Can you picture me ... walking ... running around in a beautiful little meadow with wildflowers ... holding a leash in one hand to hold on to The Dukester (our Pit Bull) ... my other hand trying desperately to hold my pants up. My walk/run was very strange ... I was trying to walk like someone I saw walking like that.
I have to say I began to laugh hysterically when I told Skip what I did ... he just stood there. He just stood there and looked at me. The longer he stood there looking at me ... the more hysterical I became ... I didn't lose my pants while walking like that ... but ... I did laugh my ... ass ... off!
I found out that I don't knock anyone for wearing their pants like that. I respect how others choose to dress. Just because I'm different ... that's okay, too. I just had to 'walk in those shoes' at least one time to know how it felt. For me, it didn't feel good ... it didn't feel right.
Note by this Author:
I do silly things, crazy things ... just for the heck of it. Skip said I was the only person he knew ... who knew how to entertain herself. I'm smiling because he and Tommy used to laugh when we all were being silly ... happy ... doing crazy things, pranks.
It's strange how ... maybe you do the same ... when you watch something... someone ... over and over ... you get the urge to speak like them ... to act like them ... to do their walk. For a moment ... you ... really 'feel' them ... for a moment ... you ... are them. Sometimes ... it can be so funny when you are laughing at yourself ... just as I did. I wasn't good at being ... someone else at all!
So ... this morning ... I ... tried someone on ... and it wasn't for me.
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