I always make a conscious effort to put my right shoe on first every morning.  This usually starts with my running shoes.  Many of my low-cut running socks are labeled “L” and “R,” with padding distributed accordingly. I also have some compression socks that are labeled in this manner, and it’s irritating when I look down to discover that I put the wrong sock on the wrong foot, or the right sock on the wrong foot.  Also, when I’m doing laundry, I have to make sure that a bundle together a “R” and “L,” since I have several of the same color and style.  It’s all part of the complicated process of getting ready in the morning, and putting your best foot forward.

There are a number of references to “proper footing” throughout history.  For example, in Leviticus the Torah gives preference to the right side of the body.  However, knots and bows demand the opposite attention- right shoe first without tying, then the left shoe goes on and gets tied.  I can’t image that I picked this all up from Jewish traditions!  In a more practical sense, shoes stores typically put the right shoe on display, while the left shoe is kept in the store room box.  With this in mind, most people are used to trying on a right shoe first primarily because it’s already laced.  I am right-handed plus my right foot happens to be larger than my left, so my best foot is my right.  Right?

As late as 1850, there was no difference between a right and left shoe, and obviously there also weren’t right and left socks.  There is a right and left pant leg, but they are sewn together to avoid confusion.  The same goes for right and left sleeves, separated by buttons, zippers, or snaps.  Unless you try to put it on backwards, there should be no need for instructions on which way is right, left, or wrong.  The question is whether you should insert your right or left appendage first? Right?

In Greece, it is believed that when entering someone’s home for the first time, you should put your right foot first to ensure good luck for the homeowner.  Other cultures use this as strictly a New Year’s Eve tradition, breaking a pomegranate at in the doorway and stepping over the fruit with your right foot for good luck.  In Scottish and Northern England folklore “first-foot” is known as qualtagh, so it even has its own word, although difficult to pronounce.  At least they give you a choice as to which foot should be first.  You have a fifty-fifty chance of being right.  Right?

Pythagoras, one of Greece’s most famous and controversial philosophers, taught his students that it is necessary to put the shoe on the right foot first.  Islam also teaches the “right foot first” philosophy, and even Shakespeare made reference to the “better foot.”  I have never thought that my right foot was better, but the Latin word sinister does means left, so perhaps right is right and left is wrong.  Right?

In Sir Thomas Overbury’s poem, A Wife, written circa 1613 the stanza reads, “Hee is still setting the best foot forward?…Nay, but make haste; the better foot before.”  By definition, putting one’s best foot forward means trying to make a good impression, or getting off to a bold start.  It apparently originated when ladies looked for a “well turned leg” in men, meaning well-bred, well-read, well-thumbed, or well-rounded.  Maybe this is also in reference to when young ladies curtsied and young men bowed.  If your legs got tangled or if you stumbled, then maybe you weren’t worthy, regardless of which best foot you put forward. Right?

When marching, the left foot always goes first; dancing requires you to lead or follow with a step opposite your partner.  In either case, if you are found to have “two left feet,” there’s something not quite right.  What if you have two right feet?  Are you a freak, alien, deformed, or exceptionally talented?  In modern times, we each have a choice of which foot is preferable.  Maybe your best foot forward is your left, but in my case it’s always been the right!  Right?

You may be wondering what this has to do with retirement?  Well, whether you’re building a career or settling into retirement, you always want to put your best foot forward.  I think that it’s wonderful that since I have the time now, I can research and explore my habits and curiosities.  I can then share them with you through this blog, because you care.  Right?