January 11, 2004
Brrrr! Barefooter finds shoe does fit
CURTIS RUSHSTAFF REPORTER THESTAR.COM
The bone-chilling temperatures expected over the next few days will have far-reaching effects — right down to the toes of Mauricio Morales.
Mauricio Morales (left) and Jeff Curley are barefoot enthusiasts. They're shown at Toronto restaurant Shoeless Joe's. |
The self-employed Toronto graphic designer likes to walk barefoot, even in winter. He especially likes to walk barefoot as the snow falls so he can expand the experience through to his heart and soul.
But not even he will put his tender tootsies through the blast of cold weather which has prompted weather warnings right through Saturday.
Tonight will be clear with the low dipping to -24C and a wind chill of -28.
Saturday will be more of the same, with a low of -24 and a wind chill of -28.
Environment Canada is calling for an end to the cold snap by Sunday, when the low will be "only" -13 with a high of -2.
By Monday, temperatures should reach a high of relatively "balmy" -3.
So, Morales is going to have to wait until a little longer before he goes on his next shoeless stroll.
"I won't do it unless the temperature rises to minus-1," said Morales, who runs a Web site called Barefoot in Toronto. That's also the name of the group he heads, whose 15 members (part of an emerging cottage industry) tout the benefits of a barefoot life.
Morales is battling a cold this week, and has been so busy at work, he says, that he hasn't walked barefoot outside for about a month. He knows people in Ottawa and the U.S. who will walk barefoot no matter what the weather.
"I really love when it's actually snowing," said Morales, who is originally from El Salvador. "I go for a walk around the neighbourhood and put my footprints on the snow. Once you get going, your feet warm up fairly quickly. It's quite surprising. At first it's a shock."
Walking barefoot in the winter is more of a "thrill", explained Morales, while in the summer "it's just getting back to a lifestyle mode."
That lifestyle is carried on by those who espouse shoelessness as a right of personal expression. There can be other benefits too. Morales noted he is noticing his arches are higher now and his calves stronger as a result of eschewing footwear.
Barefoot advocates walk barefoot to work and even to stores.
In the summer, Morales goes to his clients' sites barefoot. In winter, he goes there with socks and boots, but they come off as soon as he arrives, he says.
Shoes are like his ticket to enter places, such as restaurants, he said.
"At restaurants, they tell me, `You need shoes.' I say, `Okay.' I put them at the door, walk 10 or 20 steps to my table, sit down and off they come. And even after that, I even go to the washroom barefoot and they don't even bother me."
Friends are surprised he even has shoes at all.
"My friends tease me. They say that, 'For a guy who doesn't like wearing shoes, you definitely have a wide range of footwear.' But I've had them for years and I don't wear them as much as most people."
He keeps a pair of winter boots, one pair of sneakers, some dress shoes and several pairs of sandals, which he keeps in his backpack so when he encounters resistance in the public he can reach back and put them on.
"I go barefoot because I love it. I like to feel all sorts of surfaces under my feet. I feel shoes are very constraining. Just like people don't like wearing a hat, I don't like wearing shoes. I think a lot of people would love to do it but they're afraid because they think people will think they're something wrong with them."