Toepiphany

His e-mails arrive sporadically . . . like this one just did.

Tonight, I was peeling dead skin off my big toe.

I felt nothing.

Until one stroke gave way to peeling pain.

I realized . . .

We can never know just how sensitive something is until the hardened layers of dead skin which protect it are peeled away.

And there will be blood.

And our conversation continued . . .

I suppose in some way, it is perceptive that a toe is a teachable thing. Not that one can teach a toe anything . . . rather . . . the toe is doing the teaching.

But its curriculum is pretty limited.

Pretty much restricted to how to deal with pressure. And maybe temperature. Concealing sensitivity.

And pressure there is. And toes know a lot about pressure.

They just know.

From the faint tickling with a feather . . .

To the minute pin-stick of the doctor doing a diabetes foot check . . .

To expletive-deleted stubbing on the bed frame . . .

To being crushed by a falling can of soup . . .

To being massaged by the gentle fingers of one's love . . .

To being sequestered by thick new socks . . .

And they know how to respond.

It is that sensitivity thing.

Most times, the old toe just gets leathery. Builds a bulky old callous. Layer upon layer of keratinized skin . . . dead skin . . . hard skin . . . insensitive skin . . . pickable skin.

And then doest protesteth vigorously when that defense is picked away . . . exposing the vulnerable blood beneath . . . masquerading as the sensitivity of the longing soul.

But sometimes the old toe will respond with the fire and passion of a burst blister . . . again . . . responding to pressure . . . and when the pressure exceeds some predefined tolerance in the domain of the old toe . . . it will and does explode with pain.

And along with all that pain . . . can be experienced the most intense sensations of pleasure.

Toes know how to deal with pressure.

And cold . . .

And heat . . .

And sunburn . . .

Toepiphany is a beautiful thing . . . but you already discovered that. :)

The Refectory Manager