Ship of Fools: What is today's equivalent of footwashing in the West?

Thread: What is today's equivalent of footwashing in the West? Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Belle Ringer (# 13379) on :

Back then, so I'm told, it was common to have a servant wash a visitor's feet. (Only in households wealthy enough to afford a servant?)

I have never lived in a place where anyone offered to wash my feet (other than a totally-not-my-culture ritual once a year in church). The concept is unfamiliar, physically awkward, pointless, a little discomforting. If some dinner host offered to wash my feet I'd probably decline (he's got a weird foot fetish?) and be on guard the rest of the evening for what else strange ideas would he try to foist on me.

Footwashing does not convey to us "common courtesy" or "servant work" or whatever it conveyed back then.

If we wanted to use a common in our culture activity to instinctively convey whatever footwashing (or not offering it) meant back then, what modern activity would be somewhat equivalent?

Posted by Leorning Cniht (# 17564) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Belle Ringer:

If we wanted to use a common in our culture activity to instinctively convey whatever footwashing (or not offering it) meant back then, what modern activity would be somewhat equivalent?

You could come and clean my house.

I don't think there's anything involving our bodies that isn't a bit weird. Things that people have done to their bodies (hair washing / cutting / styling, massage etc.) are done by specialists rather than random servants. It would be very odd indeed if your host offered to give you a quick shampoo and set, or showed you to his massage table.

If you have guests staying with you, you could launder their clothes and/or polish their shoes (but increasingly fewer people wear the kind of shoes that get polished).

Posted by Gramps49 (# 16378) on :

We live in an area which has very hard water. The water stains in our shower and in our toilet can get pretty repugnant. It is my sad duty to have to take care of them. I would say this gets very close to having to wash someone's feet.

Posted by Palimpsest (# 16772) on :

Driving someone to or from the airport?

Posted by Enoch (# 14322) on :

The average reaction to foot washing, as typified by

quote:
the concept is unfamiliar, physically awkward, pointless, a little discomforting

strikes me as a very good reason to insist on foot washing and not tone it down with less embarrassing alternatives.

Posted by Schroedinger's cat (# 64) on :

One option, for those who are older or infirm, is cutting toenails. It is personal, necessity, and humbling to do, but a useful task.

The focus should be on serving someone, not the actual task.

Posted by Gamaliel (# 812) on :

This:

quote:
Originally posted by Schroedinger's cat:
The focus should be on serving someone, not the actual task.

Posted by bib (# 13074) on :

I guess that when guests come I take their coats and offer them a drink. Some guests may remove their shoes, but I don't offer to wash their feet.

Posted by Macrina (# 8807) on :

Queuing for things and mixing with the great unwashed.

Rich people never seem to have to queue or wait for things and if they do they do it well away from the rest of us in First Class lounges.

I reckon I could put up with David Cameron just a tiny bit more if I knew he'd had to undergo a few 38 hour flights in economy with 12 hour stopovers in Shanghai whenever he jetsetted.

Posted by Jengie jon (# 273) on :

You need to talk to someone who deals with the rough sleepers. There washing feet is a major contribution to a persons well being. Although a shower is good to, feet can be wasked when none is available and giving extra attention to the feet stops a variety of problems. Yet it is also unpleasant and awkward physical work. Clean socks are a rare treat for rough sleepers.

Jengie

Posted by Schroedinger's cat (# 64) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Jengie jon:
You need to talk to someone who deals with the rough sleepers. There washing feet is a major contribution to a persons well being. Although a shower is good to, feet can be washed when none is available and giving extra attention to the feet stops a variety of problems. Yet it is also unpleasant and awkward physical work. Clean socks are a rare treat for rough sleepers.

Jengie

For these people, cleaning them - helping them in a way that makes sense to them - is the right thing to do. I think the question is that this is no longer something that applies to everyone (as it did in the first century). The whole point of it was that it was done by the lowest of the low, and was the thing expected in every house.

These days, washing is appropriate for some, whereas parking their cars is the right thing for others. And serving them food and drinks. The message is that "only the lowest do this, but I am doing this for you". This is why I find most foot-washing ceremonies look rather fake - they are staged, not natural servanthood. Which is not to dismiss the intentions, just that these intentions need to be shown in other ways today.

Posted by Alan Cresswell (# 31) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Belle Ringer:
Back then, so I'm told, it was common to have a servant wash a visitor's feet. (Only in households wealthy enough to afford a servant?)

It would have been the task left to the lowest-ranking member of the household. So, if it was a relatively wealthy household with servant or slaves it would be the job of the lowest ranking of them. In less wealthy families, probably the duty of children (girls first) and in the absence of children the lowest ranking woman.

The problem is that most households in the modern world do not have such a ranking system. How do we identify the tasks that need doing but are left to the least important person in the house when everyone is effectively equal?

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

In those days anyone who had been walking on the roads needed to have their feet washed. There were many animals on the road that dropped dung. The dung was spread around by wheeled vehicles. Since people wore sandals, they ended up with dung on their feet. Washing off the dung was an unpleasant job which was left to the lowliest servant.

Moo

Posted by Belle Ringer (# 13379) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Enoch:
The average reaction to foot washing, as typified by

quote:
the concept is unfamiliar, physically awkward, pointless, a little discomforting
strikes me as a very good reason to insist on foot washing and not tone it down with less embarrassing alternatives.

LOL, the forced pointlessness of church activities is a big part of why people get alienated. If feet don't need washing (especially don't need the symbolic "washing" of dribbling a bit of water over the top of only one foot), the instinctive message is "church is nonsense."

Put that church in snow country, asking people to allow the church to "wash their feet" means telling them to remove their protection (boots socks) against the cold (there's still snow on the ground in March where I grew up). That's backwards as to who is serving whom! Someone has to agree to partially disrobe and expose tender flesh to the cold of the unheated stone church building just to serve the needs of a wannabe foot washer?

But I'm thinking in a more daily basis, as are some of the responses. I guess the answer is there's no one thing really comparable today other than try to make the place ready for guests to be comfortable.

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

Cleaning the toilets will do. But then, that's not normally performed in the presence of the people it benefits.

Posted by Schroedinger's cat (# 64) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Belle Ringer:
LOL, the forced pointlessness of church activities is a big part of why people get alienated. If feet don't need washing (especially don't need the symbolic "washing" of dribbling a bit of water over the top of only one foot), the instinctive message is "church is nonsense."

The church loves the "symbolic" - actions that mean nothing but help us "remember" what was done. Which was the whole point of Jesus teaching, of course - that we should remember and celebrate what he did, not that we should actually do the same.

The church likes symbolic footwashing, because it saves them having to help bathe a scabby, infected shit-covered beggar.

Posted by Belle Ringer (# 13379) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Schroedinger's cat:
The church likes symbolic footwashing, because it saves them having to help bathe a scabby, infected shit-covered beggar.

LOL, interesting point. Washing a bathed at home that morning and wrapped in a clean sock all day foot is nothing like washing a thilthy smelly poop-covered foot!

But then, we like cleaned-up symbols.

Back to real life, I suppose the closest similar behavior is helping a sick person with their bodily needs - cleaning up vomit, helping them toilet, giving a bed-bath. Actually in real life it can be hard to find someone to bring a bag of groceries, everyone's busy.

Maybe just giving time to be present for someone else, really listen, is the closest daily thing we can do.

Posted by jrw (# 18045) on :

I remember reading a story about some aid workers in a poor country who built a well or water system for the nearby people, so that they wouldn't have to walk miles to the well to get water. The people however, carried on going to the original well because it had become a communal gathering for a lot of people. The workers hadn't actually bothered to ask the people what they wanted. It may have just been a genuine mistake. Or did it show a kind of assumptive superiority towards poor people? Makes you think.

Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :

I really don't think there's any modern-day equivalent gesture of hospitality that one may show to a houseguest. I usually ask my guests to take their shoes off, and it's true that on one (only one) occasion I offered to clean the boots of a guest -- but only because I had noticed that he had stepped in some tar-like substance and would have tracked it all over my rugs otherwise.

I don't offer my guests house slippers, but I know that's sometimes done. I suppose that's the closest we come to foot washing.

Posted by lily pad (# 11456) on :

This past summer, I hosted cyclists - usually one or two at a time - who were touring my area. They were from all over the world, spoke a variety of languages and had been touring for as little as a week and as much as a year. A couple were travelling right across Canada and others were just doing a week long trip in the area.

The one thing that was universal for all of them was that they arrived smelly and dirty. (One of the young men had been travelling for 40 days and my place was his first stop where there was a shower.) They were greeted in my garage with lots of cold drinking water, old clean towels to wipe themselves off, and an invitation to take a shower first.

The thought of Jesus washing the disciples' feet came to me many times as the cyclists transformed from exhausted kind of scary looking folks into very lovely people. There was a real sense of service to a fellow "traveller" and an appreciation for being refreshed.

I'm not keen on the ritual foot washing that happens in churches. The more that people can do something real and practical, the better.

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :

Episcopal and clerical shoe-shining has become quite popular in recent years.

Posted by Anselmina (# 3032) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Belle Ringer:

If we wanted to use a common in our culture activity to instinctively convey whatever footwashing (or not offering it) meant back then, what modern activity would be somewhat equivalent?

If you mean in the non-metaphorical sense, as in what might be equivalent to the old Eastern tradition of making one's guest welcome and comfortable in a practical way, such as footwashing? I suppose today's equivalent is being welcoming to one's guests in whatever way is appropriate for today. Take their coat, smile, offer them a comfortable, warm, hospitable environment, tell them where the loo is. I don't imagine many guests would expect much more than that as a basic requirement to feel relaxed.

If you mean what metaphorical action is equivalent - as conveyed by Christ's use of footwashing to teach a parabolic lesson to his disciples? Well, footwashing seems pretty powerful as a symbolic ritual for that purpose.

Posted by Gramps49 (# 16378) on :

One of the last things I did for by Dad before he died was to shave him.

He had about a month's growth on his face.

His electric razor had not been cleaned for a very long time.

I offered to shave him using a razor blade, but he wanted it done with his electric razor.

First thing I had to do was to clean that electric razor--so many tiny parts.

It was indeed humbling to do this last act of love.

Mom was weeping

I think Dad was also humbled by it.

Posted by Nick Tamen (# 15164) on :

One church I attended while in college practiced hand washing on Maunday Thursday as the contemporary equivalent, as that is what we wash before eating. People came forward, dipped their hands in a large bowl of water, had their hands dried by the person in front of them and then dried the hands of the person behind them.

I was never totally convinced of the "translation"—and it wasn't really washing—though it seem more natural than washing feet.

Posted by Gee D (# 13815) on :

We hand-wash on Maundy Thursday, with the versicle response "Serve as you have been served - I shall serve". Not the same as foot-washing, but easier, as the whole congregation participates. It's voluntary of course, but you would not attend if you did not wish to join in.

A modern equivalent may be working for the meals-on-wheels service. AIUI, it's not just a matter of dropping off a tray and collecting that from a day or 2 beforehand; time is there for at least a quick chat. In addition, some of the houses are not as clean as they should be.

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

I remember washing someone's feet once--yes, and his calves and so forth, too. He had just keeled over from the heat, and I happened to be in his family's home and recognized the signs. We got the fan out and and the wet washcloths. The rest of the family took care of the other bits of him. [Biased]

[ 25. January 2015, 02:39: Message edited by: Lamb Chopped ]

Posted by cliffdweller (# 13338) on :

Our church hosts an emergency shelter for the homeless, and will sometimes have footwashings then. For many of our guests it is the first time they have had their feet clean in weeks. (We give them new, clean socks afterwards). It's not a perfect parallel because you don't have that complete sense of switching places that you have in the Jesus event, but it has been a meaningful experience.

Posted by Gee D (# 13815) on :

I don't think "meaningful experience" is adequate to describe the service you have given - but not sure what would be a better description.

Posted by Ethne Alba (# 5804) on :

The nearest is possibly working at a rough sleepers unit....

[ 25. January 2015, 12:20: Message edited by: Ethne Alba ]

Posted by cliffdweller (# 13338) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Ethne Alba:
The nearest is possibly working at a rough sleepers unit....

cross pond question: what is the difference between a "rough sleepers unit" and an emergency homeless shelter?

Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :

quote:
Originally posted by cliffdweller:
Our church hosts an emergency shelter for the homeless, and will sometimes have footwashings then. For many of our guests it is the first time they have had their feet clean in weeks.

What about the rest of their bodies?

Posted by Marvin the Martian (# 4360) on :

quote:
Originally posted by cliffdweller:

quote:
Originally posted by Ethne Alba:
The nearest is possibly working at a rough sleepers unit....
cross pond question: what is the difference between a "rough sleepers unit" and an emergency homeless shelter?

Sounds like the same thing to me...

Posted by IngoB (# 8700) on :

quote:
Originally posted by bib:
I guess that when guests come I take their coats and offer them a drink. Some guests may remove their shoes, but I don't offer to wash their feet.

There's lots of completely over-the-top silliness in this thread, as if washing someone's feet would have been this great self-debasing act. Bollocks. It's a hot and dusty place, where people run around in sandals. You pour some water over someone's feet, and towel the water off. It's not a big deal, it really isn't. Dusty feet are not like leprosy crossed with ebola, and you are not licking those fees clean. You are cleaning them with a splash of water and a towel. Get a grip.

The above gets it about right. The equivalent in a cold climate is simply to take someone's jacket, hat, scarf and maybe boots/shoes, and store them away. You know, the sort of stuff that a butler in these parts would actually do when guests come calling. That's all. Fantastic feats of serving the other beyond one's personal barriers of hygiene are not what this act is originally about. This is not super-heroic serfdom. This is quite simply a servant performing a common courtesy to guests. (And where exactly do you get the idea from that this would have been the lowest of servants? I very much doubt that. The lowest of servants would have been shovelling manure onto the crops in the fields or gutting some animal in preparation for the meal or indeed cleaning the literal shit-hole, not engaging one-on-one with guests! Foot-washing is clearly butler-type activity, it's certainly not the business of the lowest of the low... "Butlers" tend to be top of the food chain among servants in any culture.)

Posted by cliffdweller (# 13338) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:

quote:
Originally posted by cliffdweller:
Our church hosts an emergency shelter for the homeless, and will sometimes have footwashings then. For many of our guests it is the first time they have had their feet clean in weeks.
What about the rest of their bodies?

Unfortunately, we don't have facilities for that in our shelter. There is another long-term shelter in town that offers coupons for once-a-week showers. Over in nearby skid row, even that might be hard to come by. Otherwise, people make due with what they can wash in a sink of a public bathroom. That's pretty much what life is like on the streets in L.A.

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

It's probably not a big deal in physical terms, but in symbolic terms footwashing may be a bigger deal than you say. Consider that this is a middle eastern culture, and think of the whole shoe throwing thing we've seen the past few years. If feet are emotionally "ewwwww" that may count for more than mere physical disgustingness.

Posted by Felafool (# 270) on :

Since most people travel by car/bus these days, the equivalent of washing feet seems to be to wash the car/bus?

Posted by Alan Cresswell (# 31) on :

"Thank you very much for coming over for dinner. Just before you leave, I'll check your tires, lights, oil and engine fluids in your car. Drive safe"

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Alan Cresswell:
"Thank you very much for coming over for dinner. Just before you leave, I'll check your tires, lights, oil and engine fluids in your car. Drive safe"

And offer me a ride home if I've enjoyed your too much of your wine?

Posted by Alan Cresswell (# 31) on :

If going out with friends, volunteer to be the designated driver.

Posted by stonespring (# 15530) on :

Footwashing today along with just about all bodily contact is considered either erotic or potentially erotic. The same could be true of clipping someone's toenails, cutting their hair, or shaving their face. When it's done in a ritual setting it's almost the person having their feet washed who feels like s/he is debasing him/herself more than the washer by allowing someone to do something so intimate to them and (possibly) get some secret sexual arousal from it. You basically take off part of your clothing, remain still, and allow your body to be used.

I know that this is not what the mandatum is about at all, but It's all that goes through my mind during it (especially if there is a cute young guy taking his shoes off and if the priest isn't that bad to look at either).

The point I am trying to make is that although I strongly and militantly support traditional Liturgy (don't mess with what God has made holy and sexy), I can't think of any way that a person can go out of their way to be of service to someone without it having sexual and/or S&M overtones. If the person really needs the help I am sure they will accept it and be happy, but the more that the person has been socialized to mainstream culture the more they will feel that wanting to help someone for the sake of helping someone (in the person who is asking to help them) is kind of like being an aggressive submissive in kink - so the more they will feel like they are being pressured into assuming a passive dominant role by being asked to let someone help them, even if it is a form of help that involves no physical contact at all. There is no such thing as a "pure" (ie, non-sexual) intention in the brave new world we are in.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

quote:
Originally posted by stonespring:
There is no such thing as a "pure" (ie, non-sexual) intention in the brave new world we are in.

And I think you'd be wrong. Maybe Us Girls get to have more interaction with shit, vomit and weeping sores, but I can think of a few things I've had to do for and to people that were motoring on St-Catherine-of-Siena-like levels of agape.

[ 28. January 2015, 22:24: Message edited by: Firenze ]

Posted by Pulsator Organorum Ineptus (# 2515) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Enoch:
The average reaction to foot washing, as typified by

quote:
the concept is unfamiliar, physically awkward, pointless, a little discomforting
strikes me as a very good reason to insist on foot washing and not tone it down with less embarrassing alternatives.

I think it's the fact that it is embarrassing - even humiliating - to the recipient that causes difficulty, as does the possibility that the person doing the washing may have a fetish about feet.

Posted by cliffdweller (# 13338) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Pulsator Organorum Ineptus:

quote:
Originally posted by Enoch:
The average reaction to foot washing, as typified by

quote:
the concept is unfamiliar, physically awkward, pointless, a little discomforting
strikes me as a very good reason to insist on foot washing and not tone it down with less embarrassing alternatives.
I think it's the fact that it is embarrassing - even humiliating - to the recipient that causes difficulty, as does the possibility that the person doing the washing may have a fetish about feet.

Yes. If it were embarrassing to the washer then Enoch would be spot on-- since Jesus' intent in modeling this action seemed to be to call us to humility in the way we serve others. But it does seem like the cultural shift has put it very much the other way 'round, where the washee might be the person being humbled, which would be entirely contrary to the intent.

[ 28. January 2015, 23:04: Message edited by: cliffdweller ]

Posted by Leaf (# 14169) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:

quote:
Originally posted by stonespring:
There is no such thing as a "pure" (ie, non-sexual) intention in the brave new world we are in.
And I think you'd be wrong. Maybe Us Girls get to have more interaction with shit, vomit and weeping sores, but I can think of a few things I've had to do for and to people that were motoring on St-Catherine-of-Siena-like levels of agape.

Agree with Firenze. Just because any human contact can be perceived as sexualized, doesn't make it so. A parent washing a baby's feet, or a medical caregiver washing a patient's feet, are only sexualized if some outside viewer is determined to perceive these actions such. (And oh look, these are mostly traditionally female occupations. Huh.) Otherwise they are mostly perceived as necessary, innocent, pragmatic and appreciated.

stonespring, your perspective reminds me of reading the newspaper full of "dirty words" along with The Frantics.

Posted by Galloping Granny (# 13814) on :

Friends belonged to a parish where foot care was available regularly for those who needed it. Mainly oldies – since it got difficult to cut my toenails I enjoy having them cut, but it costs the same as a visit to the doctor.
Now I think of it, our own pastoral elder has arranged for a podiatrist to be available to cut seniors' toenails once a month for a greatly reduced charge.
So the service is offered by the church not by individuals Which I think is a good contemporary equivalent.

GG

Posted by Heavenly Anarchist (# 13313) on :

I spent 20 years washing various parts of people, including feet and places far more intimate, and there was never anything remotely sexual about it, whether the recipient was a 20 year old student or a local elderly tramp. And I assume this is the experience of virtually every nurse.
The homeless usually appreciate a good wash and some personal attention, ime, and the foot washing of someone who actually needs this care would be of great servitude. Elderly people often cannot reach their feet and might also welcome someone assisting them.

Posted by Enoch (# 14322) on :

The disciples, the washees, were embarrassed. That's clear from the text and clearly part of the message. What was embarrassing them was that their teacher, the Master, was doing something menial to them.

Posted by Leaf (# 14169) on :

Being washed challenges the whole "self as agent" narrative we prefer. Accepting grace and salvation is an embarrassing admission that we cannot save ourselves.

Another aspect of that, though, is that God thinks we are worth being washed.

I once teased the parish: "If you paid six thousand dollars to go to an ashram in India, and had your feet washed, you would tell your friends what a profound experience it was. 'At first I was uncomfortable, but then I realized so much: the human connections between us, and that I am worth receiving this gift of washing, and I felt so peaceful and blessed.' And your friends would nod and think how deep you are. But when it happens in your parish church, it's just weird! So maybe you don't have to pay six thousand dollars to learn the same lesson you can learn right here."

Posted by Al Eluia (# 864) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Lamb Chopped:
Cleaning the toilets will do. But then, that's not normally performed in the presence of the people it benefits.

There was a local "eccentric" here in Seattle who was in danger of being evicted from his apartment. The issue was his inability to keep the place up properly. The RC archbishop at the time heard about this and organized a cleaning party. The archbishop himself took the job of cleaning the toilet, which was apparently encrusted with filth. That has always struck me as one of the best modern examples of following Christ's model of humble service.

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

[Overused]

Posted by Og: Thread Killer (# 3200) on :

Well for us Anabaptist's footwashing is something that used to be done a lot up until the 60's but kinda stopped. I've seen it twice, never participated.

So...maybe the equivalent would be listening to 45's.

Posted by SvitlanaV2 (# 16967) on :

Some of the black Pentecostal churches used to, and maybe still do, practice foot washing during certain church services. (Men wash men's feet, women wash women's feet.) It's a symbolic act, a ritual, so helping homeless people or being a friendly neighbour isn't really an equivalent.

I imagine that ritualistic foot washing in Nonconformist (e.g. in the Anabaptist case above) and even Pentecostal contexts might have declined for the same reasons as speaking in tongues or revivalistic camp meetings, etc.: it doesn't exactly seem dignified, and it works against the formalising tendencies that most smaller churches develop.

By contrast, if it's practised occasionally in an Anglican or RCC, etc., setting, it seems rather radical and inclusive. These are already formal, well-established and well-known institutions, so they don't risk losing their dignity by participating in such rituals; rather, they gain in street cred. That's how ISTM.

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