23:40 Tuesday 22 November 2016 JST
I plan to speak at PechaKucha on 24 November!
These are the pictures I’ve submitted, and pretty much what I plan to say for each picture.
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| 0:00 HI! I’m Rob! As you may have noticed, I like to walk around barefoot! I like to feel connected to the earth. It’s like the movie Grounded, but I was barefooting way before that movie. | 0:20 It all started back in the halcyon days of university, when we had nothing better to do than watch paint dry. Nah just kidding. But when we felt tired after studying long hours, we’d go to House of Pies. It was a great way to connect with friends. | 0:40 I also enjoyed carrying a frisbee! I was known on campus as that barefoot frisbee guy. All in all, I was barefoot for 7 years in Houston, Texas. | |
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| 1:00 In Japan I’ve been barefoot for about five years. One day while minding my own business arriving at the airport, some guys with TV cameras were like “hey why are you barefoot?” and I actually ended up on TV! | 1:20 I haven’t always been barefoot! When I first started, I noticed that I felt two things very clearly. First, I felt embarrassed and some fear. I can remember curling my toes to try and hide my bare feet. | 1:40 I also felt my feet!! Walking on sharp rocks or even rough asphalt can be really painful. Especially for beginner barefooters. | |
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| 2:00 Being barefoot was worth it. The connection to earth and to my true nature were more important to me than social mores. I like to feel connected to my physical body. | 2:20 Speaking of connections, my wife and I have a heart and soul connection. Both times my wife and I celebrated our marriage, I was barefoot! She even joined me the second time. | 2:40 Marriage, like barefooting, sometimes has surprises! One time I thought my wife was upset. I asked her what was wrong and she said “I’m just fine!” I thought hooray! Now we can live Happily Ever After. | |
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| 3:00 So we were hiking along in life and marriage, We had a place to live. We had food, water, and internet. Everything was fine! | 3:20 Oh no! And then surprise! It wasn’t fine. Stub a toe; lose a sale; get a bad grade. Maybe say something that we didn’t mean to say? | 3:40 What happened? It looks like someone wasn’t paying attention to where he was going (Okay, I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going (or to what I was saying)) And then someone else got hurt. | |
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| 4:00 So how do we usually deal with this pain? Hide behind a pile of paperwork? Hide behind “I’m fine?” What if we didn’t hide? What if we feel the emotion and talk to people anyway? | 4:20 What if we feel the emotions and go out and engage the world? Be fully present with emotions in our bodies. | 4:40 In fact, why not go out on a limb and make some art. Share your heart! It’s just the start! Give your soul a chance to express itself. Allow your emotions to express themselves through creativity. | |
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| 5:00 Okay story time. I was at the station, and the guy was like, “watch your step.” I looked down and everything seemed okay. I even took a picture | 5:20 Then I looked up and thought, Ohhh maybe he was talking to all of us. Maybe he’s encouraging all of us to notice the world around us. And I’m encouraging all of us to feel the feelings that result from what we notice. | 5:40 We can’t always live Happily Ever After. Things happen. People get upset. Now if my wife or I get upset, we talk about it. We deal with it at that moment. We’re much closer as a result. But, if I see broken glass in the street, I feel pretty angry, but I can’t say anything about it. | |
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| 6:00 But I want to. I want a safe place where I can express anything. A circle where we can sit, and connect authentically. Where we can yell or scream or cry. …So I created that space. | 6:20 A free peer group for men where we support each other to feel the emotions within us and express anything we want… I encourage you to notice the world around you. Feel the emotions that come up. Express yourself. If you ever need to scream, come see me. |