Boots-and-me: an ethno-sensual account of love, dedication and smelly old boots

Abstract

Boots-and-me is an ethno-sensual narrative of my life with some rock-climbing boots and more specifically, my feet within them. It explores my physical, sensual engagement with these items of sports equipment, spanning a period of twenty-eight years. The story is a stylised form of writing with frequent, colourful use of analogies for a more vivid interpretation. From this sense-laden and textured narrative, a deeper story is revealed about aspects of my personality and character. Establishing that my feet are connected to my head(!) leads to critical consideration of some ideas emerging from the tale; shared experiences in research. A short prologue introduces the main story; Boots-and-me, followed by an epilogue of theoretical analysis and discussion from respondents to the story. It is concluded that physically and emotionally rich auto-accounts about how people come to rely on items of equipment may be a window to some of their life-management strategies.