Michelangelo & the Importance of Clean Socks

Some of you may have noticed that I have been away from my blog lately. This is in large part because I was in Northeast Texas last week, where the internet, for many, is still another 20 years away. I am not sure, but my guess would be that less than 1 household in 10 would have access to high speed internet. We have high speed internet at both flower shops - but it is in constant use - and there is little time for goofing-off. In any case, I know many of you have missed the cultural experience of reading the Let Go Journal for a few days, which is why today, I invite you to join me in exploring the relationships and nuances of Michelangelo and Clean Socks.

I had only been in Northeast Texas one day, when I realized I had forgotten to pack my socks. This has happened before, so I wasn't too surprised. The simple solution, just wear yesterday's socks again. This does not usually create a problem. On the other hand, over-doing this can create significant problems.

Consider the case of the original "renaissance man", Michelangelo. It is said that while painting the Sistine Chapel, that he rarely changed any of his clothes - least of all his socks. As a result, they wound up having to actually cut the socks off of his feet - with skin coming off along with the socks in some cases. As you can imagine, this had to hurt a bit. See picture of Michelangelo, to the right - grimacing as his socks are being removed. You know that had to hurt. Worse yet, I'll bet Michelangelo's feet itched like hell! Another thing I have often wondered about is "who got the job of cutting the socks off of Michelangelo's feet?"

As far as I can tell, Michelangelo was pretty much a loner - not married and didn't have anyone to help him with the problems of not having clean socks. Fortunately, for me, I have Nancy, and after three days of wearing the same pair of socks, I spied a pair of her socks laying on the floor, and put them on. Yes, Nancy had worn them the day before, but that still leaves them two days cleaner than mine. Her feet are a little small, but they worked pretty well anyhow. So, I went ahead and wore Nancy's socks for a day or two.

So you ask, "Mike, why didn't you go buy some socks?" The answer is I really don't know. I surely would have bought some new socks if I had known how much my feet would start itching like hell, after about 5 days. I scratched my feet until, like poor old Michelangelo, the skin came off in places. Luckily, as I said before, I have Nancy. She went to the store and got me some stuff to kill "Athlete's Foot Fungus", plus a whole package of new clean socks.

Now after several days of treatment, with "Tough Acting, Tinactin", my feet are starting to recover. Clearly there is a simple lesson that can be learned from this. In the future, when I forget to pack clean socks - I'm going to sneak into Nancy's suit case and steal her clean socks, before I get a bad case of Athelete's Foot. Too bad Michelangelo didn't have Nancy.

All the best,

mike