Manual of Life - Things You Didn't Realise Were Weird Till You Did #45

I can't quite remember the first time I ever noticed that something I had taken for granted all along, was perhaps not the only way that thing had to be. But I'm certain it affected me then as all such moments affect me today - with a tide of surreality washing over me, making me wander around for hours later looking at everything as if I was noticing them clearly for the first time, and asking myself how...and why...I'd been ignoring the obviousness of it all.

I increasingly look for those moments, searching for things around and within me that I've simply accepted because that's how they were when I found them, but which - on a little probing - prove to be just one of various possible options, or (even better) not the truth at all. It's quite an amazing feeling when you get there (and I'm sure most of you will have felt it), of almost not being here fully, and of feeling that if you just tried a little harder, then you would be able to understand the meaning of it all.

And these moments do not necessarily come from ponderings over profound matters, or pivotal and life-changing events. Sometimes, they can occur due to the most trivial and absurd matters.

For instance, socks.

During the donning of one such item before a brief sally into the chill night, the uncontrolled part of the brain suddenly noticed that in effect, they were gloves for the feet, weren't they? But if so (and this was the surreal-inducing bit) why did they have one all-encompassing cover, rather than individual slots for each toe?

That thought kept me rooted to my position for about five whole minutes.

I could not believe I had never questioned this before, when it made so much more sense (because you would be able to wiggle your toes, and they would be warmer because they were each snuggly fitted rather than having air-space between them, and surely you would get a better grip with your feet if you could spread your toes (as you do with bare feet)). I didn't even know if somebody else had thought of this before and manufactured them, or if they had been a brief fad and then failed. Of course, they do exist, and I obviously missed the whole fad, because I really can't remember having ever seen anybody wearing one of these, or noticing them being sold on the racks. And yes, I guess they're not that common because it costs the manufacturer more, and the only argument I can think of against them is that they don't help your feet fit into shoes as well as the regular socks do....

...but what really shook me was that I'd never thought of it, had never heard anyone mention it, or even read any reference to the same. It was one of those things. Even though there is another way - which may be better.

And these were just socks! What else had I been missing?

I gotta tell you, for a few moments there, reality felt mighty thin.