Fields of freedom

The anthology In Their Shoes: Fairy Tales and Folktales by Julia Nicholson and Anne-Laure Mercier, explores the shoe as symbol for flight, lightness, travel, sex (even the sex organs), power, confinement, punishment, escape, dance, experience, status.

I am put in mind of work I once did on the aspects of locales and their associated fields of freedom, using a shoe as example.

There-ness: what the locale is & what it can be (the shoe as symbol), can have (a flaw), can do (be used to beat on a table); or (put another way) what about the locale is not settled as to being, having, or doing

Manifest-ness: the evident & the hidden (the construction), the invisible (the odor), the suggested (the style of use); or (put another way) what about the locale is not overt, visible or explicit

Here-ness: what is present & the absent (the partner), the empty (no foot), the missing (the laces); or (put another way) what about the locale is not in attendance, tenanted, or complete

This-ness: the individual & the form (shoe styles), the many (all the shoes in the world), the whole (part of a costume); or (put another way) what about the locale is not concrete, single, independent

Now-ness: what is now & the past (in the shoebox), the persistent (ever on the ground), the coming to pass (discarded); or (put another way) what about the locale is not at or not only at this moment

Me-ness: I (or as if I) & an other (others' shoes), you (your shoes), myself (my shoes); or (put another way) what about the locale is not just to itself

Everything is what it is, and so much more.