New Shoes?

My shoes are in a bad way.

I have had them for a good few months at this point and their age is starting to show. Both heals are just about separated from the rest of the shoes. There are holes in various parts of them that invariably let whole puddles of water into them. The laces refuse to stay tied for more than a twenty minute walk. Finally, they are really starting to smell unpleasant.

So the answer to this non-question is to get rid of them. But I sincerely do not want to. To one extent it is a monetary concern. Another concern is the actual process of shoe shopping that I find painful. Both of these fears however, are mitigated by the fact that I already own a spare pair of shoes that are exactly the same as my current ones; only not on the point of falling to pieces. Is it just stubbornness then that keeps me in this so-called shoes?

I believe that they have a certain latent memory in them. For instance, I do not know what shoes the laces came from but I have had them for awhile. There is a certain continuity in wearing the same shoes throughout different seasons, different situations and different places. I have often been asked why I do not give up these relics and indeed, I soon may be obliged to. But my answer has to be that I do not want to lose an element of personal continuity in a world that disrupts all claims to this continuity.

Are my shoes me? No. But they are a linking point from the person I am now all the way back to the person who originally bought them.

-The English Student