In Which I Just Give Up

Post title notwithstanding: don't worry, folks, I haven't abandoned the high standards to which I hold myself and those surrounding me. This, specifically, is about that pair of Edward Greens, cut on the historic 202 last (Berkeley, in chestnut) that I picked up for something like $7.50 at Catholic Charities a few months back.

I tried my amateurish damndest to rehab the things, but I realized last night that:

a.) I lack the patience to strip an entire much-abused shoe down to its basic and raw state using elbow grease and acetone,

b.) the slight tearing above the heel counter is irremediable, and therefore

c.) it's really kind of a waste of time to devote even the amount of man-hours I already have in order to make a pair of 30+-year-old shoes look like I bought them new.

So, those points agreed upon, the shoes had become more experiment than project. I took a Bic (lighter, not pen) to them, slathered them in mink oil and let them sit overnight, and, this morning, toweled off the excess and threw them on.

And every time I looked down, I was actually very pleased. Not only were they comfortable, but they embodied this kind of shabby-chic (I actually hate that descriptor, let's go on-trend and say wabi-sabi) aesthetic that I've been moving towards lately.

And why the paradigm shift? Well, it's environmental, for both technical and psychological reasons. Respectively: it's hard -- nigh futile, even -- to attempt a knife crease or a mirror shine when you're in an apartment with "temperamental" outlets and odd lighting; likewise, it's difficult to profess a preference for Barcelona chairs and the "clever" use of glass curtain walls when one's living environment tends towards "quirky yet lovable decaying grandeur", with chipped and imposing architraves and warping original floors. Indeed, waking up every morning expecting Philip Johnson and getting the aging love child of Miss Havisham and Anthropologie would be jarring to the point of breakdown. So: I have learned, I have adapted and I will thrive until further notice, as I tend to do.