A week after the presidential election, while walking through the farmers' market in Union Square, I came across a young woman giving out free hugs to strangers. I gladly accepted one. Balm.
A day later, a friend told me that a Lutheran pastor on the Upper East Side has been dispensing free counsel on the sidewalk on Tuesday mornings while sitting in a wooden booth that he had made to the exact specifications of Lucy's in the comic strip “Peanuts,” complete with a sign reading, “Spiritual Help, 5 cents. The pastor is in.” (Nickels are provided.)
Street preachers. Huggers without portfolio. If stores and restaurants can pop up, why can't the helping professions?
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