I No Understand - The Little Toe

Above: Why are you still there??

I've always wondered why we still possess five toes instead of four, like a bird. Perhaps we have evolved in such a way that God had invested so much in human-brainpower that he forgot about a bird's; or a bird's feet that he forgot about our feet. To make you understand what I'm trying to make you understand...about what I think I understand, our little toe is useless.

    Yes, the little toe, the fifth metatarsal and smallest toe on our feet. It is the one toe that always gets in the way. Slamming itself into corners of walls, doors and anything slammable you can think of. Everybody had been there, and everybody can remember the agony and pain associated with accidentally hitting your little toe on something. Apart from being a pain in the ass, the little toe also acts as magnet for deformities, especially associated with wearing shoes (which 90% of civilized people have on their feet), of which you can see it all here.

    Being such a burden, what benefits you may ask, does the little toe carry?

    It doesn't act as balance, as I believe I can very well balance myself if my little toe is amputated, so will you. It is also lazy, not being able to move by itself without moving your four other toes, even so only moving a miserable few degrees in a horizontal plane. It doesn't help keep your nostrils clean, which is taken cared of by your pinkie, or more formally known as your little finger. In short, it doesn't do much benefit other than getting hurt and diseased, much like the appendix lying in some of your abdomens today, including mine.

    So why is it still present? My theory is that the little toe is nothing more than a remnant of our evolutionary past. To put simply, a vestigial organ. Very much like our appendix, which was once used to aid in the digestion of cellulose but today just swells up spontaneously, or otherwise, our coccyx (assbone) which brings much pain to our behinds when a friend plays the pull the chair prank on you or even sometimes when you do situps on the ground. Maybe sometime long ago our little toe was used to dig out grubs from a rotten log, to grasp onto branches of trees, to make us hang upside down and sleep. All we know is, it doesn't serve it's previous function anymore.

    So where do we go now? How do we deal with our little toe? For me, I would let God and nature act. Maybe someday, thousands of generations later, the little toe will shrink in size, which I think it has for mine, but not for a few of my friends. Maybe, just maybe, future humans will have four toes and birds can speak and the little toe will be embedded somewhere in our feet, much like a whale's vestigial hind legs, a reminder for us of its past. We never know.

    However, if your little toe is too big and unbearable, you can either head down to the clinic or hospital to get them amputated or save costs and do a little DIY at home. DO NOT forget painkillers and ice!!

Source: Medscape