Yesterday we visited the “Bata shoe museum” in Toronto. Yes, there is a shoe museum.

They have an exhibit from the Roman Vindolanda fort near Hadrian’s Wall. Naturally they had examples of shoes from the Roman fort — I find it amazing that quite a lot of the discarded leather and actual shoes have survived 1800 years, apparently due to anaerobic conditions in the soil. But what I found even more interesting were the letters. Letters to and from the soldiers — birthdays, requests for supplies, thinking-of-you notes. Just people writing to people from the edge of the known world. Soldiers caught in the machinery of the largest empire in history, stationed at the furthest reach of it — and they were just people. Same as we are, in a world that sometimes seems equally mechanical and equally indifferent.

People are just people throughout the ages. If the shoe fits…