Welcome to chapter 15 of Indoor. My name is Ben Greenfield and every week on this podcast,

I will give you a snippet of a chapter from my book and door, which you can find in its entirety,

both physical and digital version at GetAndOr.com. Let's begin.

Chapter 15. Shoes. You've no doubt heard it before. The golden rule of empathy. Put yourself in

someone else's shoes. This illusion to seeing how it feels when you put yourself in someone's place

has been credited by many as some kind of ancient Native American aphorism. Others think it has

its origin in a poem published in 1895 by Mary Lathrepp entitled Judge Softly and later titled

Walk a Mile in His Mockisons. The poem goes like this, pray, don't find fault with a man that

limps or stumbles along the road unless you have worn the Mockisons, he wears or stumbled beneath

the same load. There may be tears in his souls that hurt, though hidden away from view, the burden

he bears placed on your back may cause you to stumble in fall too. Don't sneer at the man who is

down today unless you have felt the same blow that caused his fall or felt the shame that only the

fallen know. You may be strong but still the blows that were his unknown to you in the same way

may cause you to stagger in fall too. Don't be harsh with the man that sins or

pelt him with words or stone or disdain unless you are sure you have no sins of your own.

And it's only wisdom and love that your heart contains for it you know if the

tempter's voice should whisper his soft to you as it did to him when he went to stray.

It might cause you to falter too. Just walk a mile in his Mockisons before you abuse,

criticize and accuse. If just for one hour you could find a way to see through his eyes instead

of your own mues. I believe you'd be surprised to see that you've been blind and narrow-minded,

even unkind. There are people on reservations and in the ghettos who have so little hope and

too much worry on their minds, brother there but for the grace of God go you and I. Just for a moment

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