The Shoe People was an animated television series, broadcast in 62 countries from the late 1980s onwards, about a group of discarded shoes suddenly forced to endure the horror of sentience.
The first western cartoon to be broadcast in the former Soviet Union, it chronicled the daily battles of characters forced to grapple with the double-edged sword of being alive to the full range of emotion and sensation while still being worn-out, unwanted old shoes. Denied the satisfaction of fulfilling the purpose for which they were created, they were left to invent new ways to find meaning. The shoes did their best to maintain a sense of curiosity and bonhomie each time they were cast out on a new adventure, but ultimately, being a sentient shoe is a raw deal at the best of times, without even grappling with the insult of redundancy or the sting of abandonment.
We can only assume, despite the brave face many of them put on, that they lived in a sort of private hell: a state so punishing it would surely be impossible to navigate without some kind of faith.
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Read my new essay Blow Me Down With a Feather at the link in my bio
The stars have aligned and God’s will is upon us so I have put out a new essay, about faith, woo woo, and tolerating uncertainty. The link is in the bio. Happy new year!
Inevitably, I have launched a substack, Oral Fixation, to share my writing. In my titular first essay I address a pernicious scourge that has too long been overlooked in our culture: gossip addiction. You can read it or listen to me read it at the link in bio
