Words Like Locusts Flew From Her Fingers

Sick Shoes

I just saw a commercial that amazed me.

In the commercial, a woman was complaining about how her feet hurt because of arthritis. “I can’t even wear heels anymore”, she whines. Her friend recommends Aleve. At the end of the commercial, the two of them are crooning over some new pair of shoes.

How sick is that?!? You’re going to put drugs into your body–drugs with known harmful side effects when taken over a long period of time–so you can wear a pair of high-heeled shoes?!?!? God damn, but that’s stupid!! Those shoes are bad for your feet even if you don’t have arthritis. Everyone knows that.

Modern drugs are fantastic inventions. They’ve helped billions of people. Aleve, itself, has been very helpful to me at times. (I have bursitis in my left hip.) But you shouldn’t take drugs unless you HAVE to–and that includes even non-prescription drugs. If you can do something to help your condition that doesn’t involve drugs, you should do it. Surely, wearing comfortable low-heeled shoes is a sensible approach to handling foot pain from arthritis.

These kinds of commercials just reinforce silly and short-sighted behavior among people. Grr… like people need any encouragement to be silly and short-sighted.