Plan B Forum

Lord Andy Rooney Jim:

One expression I've never understood, is "the shoe's on the other foot"...

I know what it's supposed to mean, "one side has suffered something, and now the other side will suffer the same"...

But when you think about it, it doesn't make that point...

First of all, most people, (unless they're missing a foot ) have a shoe on each foot...

And if they only had one shoe for their two feet, the foot with the shoe would be better off...

It would be less likely to be harmed or damaged while walking...

But the expression "now the shoe is on the other foot" is supposed to convey the exact opposite meaning...

The foot without the shoe is supposed to be better off because the shoe is now on the other foot...

But that just doesn't make any sense...

This expression is supposed to convey the same meaning as another expression: "the tide has turned"...

But that expression makes sense...("first the tide was coming in in your favor; now it's going out in the opposite direction against you")

I guess before I'll understand the logic that the person who came up with the expression, "the shoe's on the other foot" was using, I'll have to walk a mile in his moccasins...

Well.... if you walked in my shoes, you would think it means the right shoe is now on the left foot and that other one is on the foot that is left, which would be someone's right foot, which kinda means.....

I bet you're waiting for the other shoe to drop....

It kinda means now you're the one that's at a disadvantage.

That's my take on it and maybe not yours, but if the shoe fits....

To understand another person.

One must "walk a mile in their moccasins".

My feet hurt, and I don't want to.

Saw goslings down at the river today . . . which inspires the thought that what is good for the goose is good for the gander.

To understand another person.

One must "walk a mile in their moccasins".


And then you are a mile away, and they are barefoot.

snailgate

I think the term of "the shoe being on the other foot" probably has some connection with the concept of "kicking someone when they're down".

-"BB"-

I think the expression means that the situation is reversed, that the second party is now in the situation the first one was in. I think I've herd it used mostly when the situation in question is difficult or painful so perhaps the image is supposed to be of a shoe which pinches.


yrs,
rubato