My shoes

I have these shoes, they are my favorite shoes. They are the most expensive ones I ever bought. They are made of light brown leather, and they brought me wherever I needed to be for the last four years. While all my other shoes gave up, these shoes are still intact, my last pair in Korea. Lately however, they seemed to be at the end of their lives. The color had faded and the soles were entirely worn off. Okay, I thought, I will keep them until I am back home and then I will have to throw them away.

But because the soles were really almost gone, I asked my Korean buddy whether there was a shoemaker nearby. They just need some last aid to make it for three more months. She took me to the big street of shops and restaurants in Anam, which I thought to know like the insides of my pockets. At the end however, there was a little stall I had never noticed before. An old man was sitting inside, totally surrounded by little instruments, materials and nails, those things you would expect from a shoemaker. For an unbelievably cheap price he fixed my soles. After that he cleaned and polished my shoes as well, with the craft and care only a shoemakers possesses. He magically transformed my worn shoes into shiny classy footwear. “When it starts snowing, just come back, I’ll put a profile on them. I’ll do it for nothing, because you are new here”.

When trying to feel at home in a still new place, knowing a nice shoemaker can make a big difference. More importantly, I had sort of given up on my shoes already. “You know, if you take a little bit better care of your shoes,” he said, “you will be able to wear them for a very very long time”.

Somehow I feel that’s a very valuable lesson.