Maybe the problem is we've never been good at having it both ways. Either flip-flops are a Margaritaville-esque symbol of endless summer and casual joie de vivre, or they are a respectable member of the sandal family.

Not both, apparently.

So let us now fling ourselves into this month's generation gap. On one side, 10 members of Northwestern University's national champion women's lacrosse team wore flip-flops to a July 12 White House reception.

(What's the big deal, one team member asked. Her flip-flops were rhinestone-bedecked and cost 16 whole dollars. It's not like she was wearing those $3 plastic jobbies from Walgreens.)

On the other side of the divide — with a brief pause to gasp at spending $16 on flip-flops, for crying out loud — hands are wrung. O, these kids today! Have they no sense of propriety? Have they no respect? Didn't they read the manual? You don't wear flip-flops to the White House!

Keeping in mind that way back when, you were egregiously underdressed if you didn't wear a powdered wig to meet the commander in chief. But whatever.

The point is, both sides appear to be fighting a losing battle. Over minimalist footwear.

Designers have made flip-flops froufrou and slapped $185 price tags on them. And pro-flip-floppers have claimed, "See? See? They're designer. Ergo, they're real shoes, suitable for work and the White House."

But they're still flip-flops, the anti crowd protests. You can buy a flip-flop pendant at Claire's and wear it as a symbol of hang loose, laid-back, easygoing anything. As long as flip-flops are decorated with palm trees and sold on the beach, they will never be Dressy. They will never be Appropriate for Church. The Naked Foot is Unprofessional!

And yet these kids keep wearing them, trying to have it both ways. The boys wearing pukka-shell necklaces and Abercrombie jeans with flip-flops. The intern wearing high-heel, aerodynamically contoured flip-flops with Ann Taylor separates.

And everyone else trying to escape a little summer heat, trying to shave a few seconds off getting dressed, trying not to shuffle when they walk, trying to say I'm casual yet serious, polished yet fun.

Acknowledge the flip-flops but pay them no mind. The smack of a million feet walking is simply the sound of a changing world