10-8-2019

From K.S.:

I doubt any public restroom can ever be truly “sanitary,” nor can the very earth we walk on or practically any other place we may be barefoot and touch with our feet. But “unsanitary” does not necessarily mean hazardous to our health, unless it relates to what or from what source we are eating.

Merely touching unsanitary surfaces with bare skin – including the bottoms of our feet – is not going to do us any harm. Ingesting something from an unsanitary source is much more likely to make someone sick. Urine, feces, or anything else that could be on the floor of a public restroom is not going to do us any harm if we happen to step in it. Reluctance to do so is only due to personal squeamishness, not due to some actual harm that might befall us.

I never hesitate to walk barefoot into a public restroom, and do it all the time when I’m away from home. There’s no way I can be away from home for several hours and not have to go at least once. And I don’t ever wear shoes, so a restroom is certainly no exception. I never give it a second thought.

Just like being barefoot anywhere, I always pay attention to where I’m stepping. So if I see something that I’d just as soon not step in, I just avoid it if I can. If I have no choice – like with unknown wetness all over the floor around the toilet – I just step in it. No big deal, and I know it’s not going to hurt me.

——————————

From: (Another) K.S.

I’m with ya’.  While many of my shoe wearing friends think it’s kinda’ cool (or at least interesting) that I go barefoot everywhere, the one idea most of them can’t imagine is going in a public restroom barefoot.

What they can’t understand without becoming a full time barefooter is that your feet become your shoes. To not feel the open air around your feet and the surface under your soles becomes foreign.

Yes, I avoid a puddle if I see one, but if the whole floor is damp or sticky or whatever, it doesn’t phase me. It’s all part of the world under my feet. I know that a few steps across a parking lot or grass will wipe my feet clean. But then again, the shod world defines clean as freshly scrubbed with soap. They will never get it if they don’t do it.

Now, I’m not criticizing [anyone] for wearing shoes into the restroom. I am just saying that becoming totally comfortable being barefoot is a process, and you, too, may eventually cross that last barrier.  Think about this: you have no idea what animal or yes, human, may have peed, pooped or puked on the ground you just walked over barefoot.  It’s all a matter of degrees.