Theory Vs. Practice

Sitting in the shade with an ancient, wrinkled book
is pretty easy unless you can't find your shoe
because you really need it if you want to ride your horse.
You could always go inside and grab another pair, but you know they're so ragged.
Still, there's not much else you can do. Rocks on your feet aren't the worst thing you've felt.
You figured out long ago that life isn't actually life without a bit of pain.

Sharp edges, you well know, are not the only kind of pain.
You've read about all types of it in a hundred books.
But that doesn't mean you can understand it if it's something you've never felt.
You start to think that you're better off without your shoe.
There can't be anything wrong with getting your feet dirty and ragged.
And anyway, your feet are above ground when you're on your horse.

So you decide that it's time to close the covers and walk to your horse.
And you wish that through your bare feet, you can truly know pain.
You want it to pierce your spirit and make your soul ragged
Because there is only so much you can learn from a book.
An obstacle now is your previously coveted shoe.
What is to come is the most real thing you've ever felt.

As you slowly tread over the rocks, you think of the previous times you've felt.
And those times when you thought you had reached your horse.
But the entire time, you had protection. You had a shoe.
It created a layer between you and the earth. It dulled the pain.
And by the end of the trip, you thought you had superseded the book.
But you didn't know the true meaning of ragged.

You thought you might join the ranks of those who are ragged,
but they told you that you had never actually felt.
They laughed at you for never leaving the book
and said that you would never find your horse.
They explained what it means to feel real pain
and the first step was to throw away your shoes.

So on a whim, you removed from your feet each shoe
and let the dust collect on your feet to make them ragged.
You mentally prepared your delicate skin for pain
because you understood it as something you had not felt.
Today is the day you find your real horse
and not some lofty creature you'd find in a book.

The rocks are ragged things you've finally felt.
Without a shoe, you reach your horse.
And pain is no longer a thing you got from a book.