>> Strategic Engagement: A project to shrink my footprint
about:
Strategic Engagement was an effort to shrink my footprint by running barefoot or in shoes that mimic barefoot running. Begun in August 2006, I took a print once a month for about a year and then measured the length and width of my foot. My goal was to eventually run completely barefoot, ending my reliance on and consumption of running shoes. Through barefoot running, I also hoped to correct an imbalance in my arches, which results in a size and a half difference between my right and left feet. Through barefoot running, I was surprised by the amount of tactile information previously blocked by wearing shoes and the joy of running without any weight on your foot. I also cut my feet a few times and worked through a few blisters.
The name of this piece refers to the essay, Strategic Withdrawl by David James Duncan. In the essay, Duncan encourages a deeper understanding of our world and neighborhoods by moving inward, letting go and looking at the stars.
"Strategic withdrawl: any act you can devise, and psycho-spiritual act at all, that embodies a willingness to wait for the world to disclose itself to you, rather than to disclose yourself, your altruism, your creativity, skills, energy, ideas and (let's face it) agenda, myopia, preconceptions, delusions, addictions, and inappropriate trajectories to this world. —an act of faith then, really: faith that the world is always disclosing itself; faith that lack of disclosure is impossible; faith that what blocks Creation's ceaseless flow of disclosures is, invariably, our calluses and callousness, our old injuries and injuriousness, our plans, cross-purpose, neuroses, absurd speed of passage, divided minds, ruling manias, lack of trust, lack of faith—and overabundance of faith, cf. Thomas Merton: 'Prayer is possible only when prayer is impossible.' "
—From My Story as Told by Water, David James Duncan, 2001
The project was unsuccessful at shrinking my foot, mostly because I did not do enough barefoot running.