Whitney Swaim - Noland Trail 2 (Outside Topic 5)

On the same day as the drum circle, I noticed something else interesting at the Noland Trail. After having my shoes off for a while and then putting them back on, I started thinking about what it would be like to live day-to-day without shoes. As far as primal societies go, I know that some of them have shoes. However, some do not, and many primal groups from long ago did not wear shoes either. Either way, it does help people connect to the earth when they are not wearing shoes. I did not realize how much of a barrier between nature and myself that shoes really are. With this said, I thought about walking through the park without shoes to form a closer relationship with nature. On the walk back to the car, however, I saw that many of the paths in the Noland Trail park are filled with shells and rocks. This is attractive to the eye, yet it is ironic that some of the paths in one of the most "natural" areas of Newport News are actually not fit for barefoot people who are trying to have a fully natural experience.