Do you need a better reason?

 I was walking around campus the other day, making copies and trying to finagle a key to my classroom, when I saw a guy standing in front of the university center with a sign advertising Free Hugs. I gave him a wide berth the first time I passed him (I’m not sure what makes me sadder, that it’s hard to trust people, or that mistrust is so often justified), but the very idea of free hugs made me smile. When I passed his way again, I decided to take him up on the offer.

I marched up to him, smiled, and said, “I’d like a free hug, please.” He returned the smile and laughed as he hugged me. “Yeah, why not, right?” He said. Which is precisely what I’d been thinking: free hug – why not? I asked him what prompted the decision to offer hugs to total strangers, and he pointed me toward the Free Hugs Campaign.

“I see people walking around,” he told me,” and they just look like they feel bad. So I thought, why not?”

It rained most of the day; the hem of pants got waterlogged and dragged me down as I walked. But I know my heart was a little lighter.

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