Shoes

Everybody’s heard the phrase, “You can’t really know a man until you walk a mile in his shoes.” When asked what this means, most will say something along the lines of, “You have to consider other people’s perspectives or life experiences.” This is NOT a correct interpretation. If that were the case, the phrase would be, “You can’t really know a man until you look at his shoes and see where he’s been.”

Wearing another’s shoes is proactive, not speculative. What the quote is getting at is that you can’t know another unless you have shared or parallel experiences. It’s impossible to know what it’s like to have been somewhere without having been there. Further, it’s impossible to relate to another’s experience of having been somewhere unless you were there with them or did similar things there at around the same time. You can’t look at someone else’s tattoo and ask, “Did it hurt?” and then think you know what it’s like to get tattooed. Nobody can abstract experience from theory.