Literary Friends?

In Jonathan's blog, he included an entry about Harry Potter Mania, and how he had read on CNN.com about people feeling a sense of loss that the series had come to an end. Jonathan asked:

To my readers: any character-friends come to mind, other than the ones already
mentioned in this post?

Here is my reply:

I have now pondered this entry for two and a half days - thinking about the question of "character-friends" from books I may have read.

I've racked my brain. I've recalled classics that I've read throughout school. I've examined the books that are placed with love on my hallway bookshelf.

I do have to admit that several books I have read have brought intense emotions. Yes, I cried while reading "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants." Yet when I closed each of the books (it was a 3 part series), I smiled with contentment - not feeling a pain as though losing a friend.

I pondered this. Wondered if I have not read enough. Wondered if I have simply read the wrong books. Wondered if I just did not have the capacity to empathize.

Then last night as I knelt in my closet to straighten my shoes - I picked up a pair of brown, high-heeled sandals. As I neatly placed them side by side, I felt what can only be described as a pain as I realized that their end was coming. I squinted my eyes and examined the heels - wondering if a cobbler could do something about the leather that had peeled in spots.

And then it hit me.

Although this may reveal my shallow side, especially in the midst of such a literary sophisticated blog, my shoes have acted as friends to me.

Why do I say this?

I can recall in the spring of 2000 purchasing these shoes. They were from Payless Shoe Stores and cost < $20. (Now keep in mind that I am a shoe-string budget type of gal – I don’t have a closet full of Manolo Blahniks.) I remember while purchasing them thinking that if they lasted through the summer then I'll have gotten my money's worth out of them. I never would have dreamed that I would still have them 7 years later.

Now why are these shoes something special?

They have thin leather straps in a "thong" style but also have a delicate heel - giving me much needed height and 'lengthening my leg' as Stacy from What Not to Wear would say. They go with everything from a cute sundress to my favorite tan seer-sucker knee length shorts. And I have many fond memories while wearing them.

These shoes and memories reminded me of my beloved copper, ruffled Steve Madden peep-toe wedges. I've worn them to weddings and on nights out on the town. I wore them to the hospital to see my friend Audrey's new baby. And I wore them as a sense of comfort when I went to the hospital to sit by a friend on his death bed. I remember looking down through a haze of tears and thinking "Bair lived his life to the fullest. And he would be proud of me wearing a special pair of shoes to the hospital to say my good-byes."

And so the Ruffle Shoes - as I affectionate call them - are dear old 'souls' (corny pun intended) to me.

And one day when I'm forced to retire them into their shoebox one final time - I will have a sense of sadness as though losing a friend. They've been with me for many highs and have made the lows easier. And they will have served their time well (aside from the blister that they gave me the first time that I wore them but I will choose to forget that incident).

And I will be forced to find a new favorite pair of shoes to walk with me throughout the next chapter of my life.