by Rumi (translation by Coleman Barks)

I want to be where
your bare foot walks,

because maybe before you step,
you’ll look at the ground. I want that blessing.

A blessing perhaps if all you want is consideration, but not such a blessing if you still get squished like a bug by someone’s bare foot (someone who has factored the costs, or is oblivious to them). An African proverb has a slightly different take on the same theme:

When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.

Do the elephants look at the ground? Would they, if the “bare foot” theory of Rumi were true?