The Grass Beneath my Feet
by One man’s revelation into what has happened to us and our society.
I walked that day; only to discover that many things in my life had changed and yet, had they? I had decided to leave my suburban inner city semi-detached with only my shorts, shirt and thongs in my hand. The sun was shining and the sky was a milky blue. My purpose for walking that day was to visit my girlfriend who lived on the other side of the bay. It was a considerable walk by city measures and even for myself considering that I’d become one of them.
The initial feeling of heading out the door was one of mixed emotions and sordid feelings. I knew as soon as my feet reached the cold grey cement of the pathway leading from the front door through the front garden and joining the five steps that ended at the footpath that I was in for a bemusing day.
I’d felt a rush of the past with memories of my child hood creeping up on me like a naughty child hunting its prey. I didn’t know why I felt so emotional at the time, only that I did. Later it became clear. I somehow felt that I was doing something wrong or that I was trespassing on forbidden land.
The different textures were amassing as I leaped down the steps onto the pathway and across the narrow bit of lawn that separated the pathway and the road. As I stood on the black pavement of the road I reeled in pain as the crude asphalt clawed into my soft white feet. I couldn’t believe it, when I was a kid I would have eaten this road for breakfast.
My legs buckled as they awkwardly carried my body across the road onto the pathway again. I felt temporary relief although I enjoyed the raw feeling.
As I walked thongs in hand, I contemplated the bold and courageous step that I was taking. The last time I recall wearing bare feet -as we used to say- as if they were something you put on, I was a boy growing up in the suburb of Spence in Canberra. I knew then what the Earth meant to me, I knew that my relation to it and it’s to me was of paramount importance to life. So how, after such a long time, maturity, education and guidance did I feel that we lost our way or was it just me?
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