From Landon Pigg: Falling In Love At A Coffee Shop

Originally I was planning to write this:

I hate flip flops. I hate the sound of them. I believe they’re cheap. I think they are mostly inappropriate to wear. They are like sweatpants, except for the feet. They say: I don’t care. Sure flip flops are fine if you are six, you are poor, or if you are on the beach. But to wear them with a business suit, or when you have to wear layers of clothing because it is cold, is surely a sign of bad taste.

To make it worse, there are so many other shoe choice women (and to some degree, men) can wear. Why wear flip flops when you can wear something better? It drives me crazy.

That’s what I was planning to write. But two things happened to me when I started to write this. And it illustrates a greater point. The first thing is that I discussed it with someone who not only dared me to write it, but also (very nicely) critiqued my thinking. The second thing is I thought: if I write this, is it really true, or is it just lazy thinking on my part? If it is lazy thinking, how do I feel about people who many not be as nice (as Cynthya was) in criticizing me for writing my dislike for possibly their favourite footwear?

Thinking about it more — but not too much more: we are talking flip flops here – I have to concede that some flip flops are actually half decent, and not all that different than a dress sandal (though I prefer the sandal or most other shoe). I also concede the thing that bothers me more about them is people wearing them inappropriately rather than the actual shoe itself.

And that is the greater point. Regardless of the topic, be it flip flops or life or death, it can be helpful to state a negative position rather than holding your tongue. If you do it constructively, you may find either that you change your position (if it is faulty) or strengthen it (if it is strong). Either way, you will learn something; something you may not of learned if you kept your thoughts to yourself.

You may get some bracing criticism. It pays to be humble, or at least open to the idea that you may be wrong. But if you do express a negative viewpoint, you may learn a lot more than if you keep it to yourself.

To sum up, you could say I flip flopped on flip flops. 🙂