Okay, so I’ve been on a bit of an exercise kick lately. I only hope I can keep the enthusiasm up, and as long as I can link it to philosophy, I think I can. So, today I want to talk about going barefoot. There is simply no better way to feel the presence, the spirit, and the power of the earth. From a philosophical desire to feel a connection to the earth and to nature, going barefoot seems only, well, natural.

But what about practical health benefits? Ah, I’m glad you asked. Running barefoot seems much healthier than the regular “pounding of feet wrapped in thick padding” we normally consider running or jogging. For years, African runners have dominated the highest levels of long distance running. The reason why eluded scientists for a long time. They tested genetic explanations, but the African runners had the same lung capacity, the same leg structure, etc., that other runners did. What the African runners had over the competition was this: they had run barefoot from childhood. The proper running technique while running barefoot, such as the one taught as the pose method, uses a light step with gravity providing the driving force. It is easier on the joints and is more energy efficient. Their are multiple health benefits to going barefoot. The following is quoted from Women’s Sports & Fitness, August 1994:

A recent study demonstrates that the skin on the soles of your feet resists abrasions and blistering and that going barefoot is beneficial to the musculoskeletal structure of your feet and ankles. … Kicking off your shoes can help prevent a host of foot injuries: bunions, heel spurs, and bone deformities, among others. “Shoes act like casts, holding the bones of the foot so rigid that they can’t move fluidly,” [Steven] Robbins [MD and adjunct associate professor of mechanical engineering at Concordia University, Montreal] explains. “The foot becomes passive from wearing shoes and loses the ability to support itself.”

The Celtic Reconstructionist in me would feel remiss if he didn’t add that at least some ancient Celts apparently saw it as a weakness to wear shoes. Not surprising, since at least a few thought it was a weakness to wear any clothes at all into battle.

Today, I have gone the entire day without wearing shoes or socks. Fortunately, because I am self-employed, I can get away with this at work. When I went to run an errand, I reflexively looked for my shoes before I remembered I didn’t really need them. It was rough-going at times. Walking on hot pavement and limestone rocks were a bit painful, but there was some joy even to that — a sense of freedom and of connectedness, of being aware and alive. Also, my movements have felt more fluid and gentle. My feet are sore and tired, but I’m loving it.

I lament the thought of having to imprison my feet in padded casts again, but I will have to eventually. There are public places that frown on the practice of going barefoot, though for no reason other than social stigma, really. But, that’s social pressure I have to bend to. Business owners can kick me out, and as a trial lawyer, I am also pretty sure judges would frown on my appearing in court barefoot. So, I’m going to take it day by day, going barefoot when and where I can for now, and taking it one step at a time.

Many other facts and useful links concerning “barefooting” can be found on Wikipedia.

Where There is no Doctor: A Village Health Care Handbook, is a guide to providing healthcare in situations where there is no access to hospitals, clinics, or doctors. It’s advice is intended for healthcare workers in third-world countries, but is useful to anyone who wants some practical how-to advice on long term care at home or in the wilderness.

This site has a link to the entire book in electronic format. It doesn’t get any better than free.

Part of my philosophy is being prepared for violence. The way of the warrior is one of protecting one’s self and one’s family from harm of all sorts: natural disaster, emergencies, and the threat of violence from others. Phil Elmore, founder of the Martialist, has an approach to martial “arts” training that I concur with: self-defense is not a sport. It is not a game. The objective is to neutralize any threat with minimal risk to oneself and others. In other words: it is not about fighting “fairly.”

Phil is an ordinary guy who seeks out the most pragmatic, sensable solutions to self-defense issues. His website is quite a trove of useful information along those lines. I’ve already paracord-wrapped my “tactical flashlight” using advice from one of his articles. Purusing his e-zine and associated forums is time well spent.

As a druid, I feel it is up to me to help my community live in harmony with nature. While such “harmony” may have some deeply spiritual meanings, I mean something very simple and concrete: living in a way that is sustainable. Not taking more from Nature than She is willing to give indefinitely. Planning for the long term — not in terms of five or ten years, but in terms of fifty or a hundred.

Our food production is not sustainable. It requires about 10 units of energy for every unit that makes it to the plate, and it is extremely oil-dependant. Pesticides, harvesting, transportation, preservation, and cooking all depend on oil and oil-based machinery. One answer to this dilemma is organic growing and permaculture methods. It is possible to develop systems of agriculture that could be operated on a small scale locally, require no pesticides, and no more than 2% of the population to be devoted to agriculture. Researchers in Asia have a lot of useful information to share with us. In Making the World Sustainable Mae-Wan Ho discusses the importance of integrating livestock with agriculture.

It may sound like a dream, but it is possible to produce a super-abundance of food with no fertilizers or pesticides and with little or no greenhouse gas emission. The key is to treat farm wastes properly to mine the rich nutrients that can be returned to the farm, to support the production of fish, crops, livestock and more; get biogas energy as by-product, and perhaps most importantly, conserve and release pure potable water back to the aquifers.

In One Bird - Ten Thousand Treasures this principle is applied to rice paddies by adding ducks.

“Well, it has been called a ‘one-bird revolution’”, my host began, “the duck is the key to success.” The secret is to release ducklings into the paddy fields soon after the seedlings are planted. But won’t the ducklings eat the rice seedlings? No. “It is in their nature not to eat the rice seedlings.” Mr. Furuno assured me, then added,”agronomists in the university say it’s because rice seedlings have too much silica.”

There are plenty of resources to teach us how to break our dependence on cheap oil and distantly-produced food, and our un-sustainable use of natural resources. It is time we learn and practice what real “harmony with nature” is all about.

As you may know, I consider emergency preparedness to be a spiritual value. We owe the people around us our ability to take care of ourselves and take care of them, too, in times of need. It is a subset of what I categorize here as “sustainable living.” It is a category that has been sorely underrepresented here. I have only one article so far in that category and it is about honey. (It is an extremely valuable one, though. I have had a few testimonials since writing it about honey’s incredible effectiveness in wound treatment.)

Lately, I’ve been researching heavily and I have found some very useful resources which I will be telling you about over the next few weeks. The first of these is a wonderful little site that focuses on survival equipment called Equipped to Survive. It features reviews of equipment and, probably its most valuable asset, a very active forum frequented by extremely knowledgeable and experienced people. I highly recommend perusing this forum for its many nuggets of survival wisdom. The forum members use a variety of specialized acronyms, and no explanation of what they mean, so, as a resource to those who might want to visit, I’ve compiled a little glossary of the ones I’ve figured out:

ETS - Equipped to Survive. That’s the name of the website / organization.

EDC - Every Day Carry. One who is equipped for emergencies usually carries some minimal equipment everywhere they go and at all times. THis is often the stuff in a wallet or on a key chain.

PSK - Personal Survival Kit. This is a small kit that one carries when in the wilderness and has on them at all times. It is an EDC when one is in the outdoors.

SAK - Swiss Army Knife. A very common component of EDC’s.

BOB - Bug Out (or Bail Out) Bag. This is a bag of stuff you need to support yourself for 72 hours in an emergency situation, such as an emergency evacuation. Some Emergency Preparedness sources call it a “72-Hour Kit.”

FAK - First Aid Kit.

RSK - A small folding knife designed by the website’s founder Doug Ritter.

SAR - Search and Rescue. A lot of the folks on this site are first responders or rescue workers. There are basically two kinds of SAR kits - a “24 hour kit” for work on an SAR mission, and a 72-hour kit that is for a base camp and is almost identical to a BOB. Many BOB’s also function as an SAR kit.

The website is, I admit, mostly a bunch of guys talking about their favorite toys. Many of them take pictures of their PSK’s and post them, for example. But, I fit right in as I love to talk about my toys, too, and the things you can learn from these folks is priceless.