Free Hugs

Thanksgiving is coming up and certainly we as Americans have a lot to be thankful for.

Despite the economic turndown (crash?), we still have a lot to offer, and I have a suggestion that won’t cost anything except a trip to your local downtown area.

Ann and I are a part of the Free Hugs Campaign, and we’re going to “demonstrate” for the first time Wednesday afternoon, the day before Thanksgiving, for a couple of hours in the Loop in Chicago. We don’t know what anyone’s reaction will be. We hope for positive results

The Free Hugs Campaign is a loosely disorganized group of people who stand in busy pedestrian areas and silently offer, you guessed it, Free Hugs. They/ we hold up a sign and people are free to participate or not. Most don’t. Our grandson Jonathan (he’s 16 and a junior in high school) has participated in the past, and we were touched by his stories, mostly simple stories of people who ignored him or got a hug.

The Free Hugs Campaign was started by Juan Mann. Here’s his story:

“I'd been living in London when my world turned upside down and I'd had to come home. By the time my plane landed back in Sydney, all I had left was a carry on bag full of clothes and a world of troubles. No one to welcome me back, no place to call home. I was a tourist in my hometown.



“Standing there in the arrivals terminal, watching other passengers meeting their waiting friends and family, with open arms and smiling faces, hugging and laughing together, I wanted someone out there to be waiting for me. To be happy to see me. To smile at me. To hug me.



“So I got some cardboard and a marker and made a sign. I found the busiest pedestrian intersection in the city and held that sign aloft, with the words "Free Hugs" on both sides.



“And for 15 minutes, people just stared right through me. The first person who stopped, tapped me on the shoulder and told me how her dog had just died that morning. How that morning had been the one year anniversary of her only daughter dying in a car accident. How what she needed now, when she felt most alone in the world, was a hug. I got down on one knee, we put our arms around each other and when we parted, she was smiling.



“Everyone has problems and for sure mine haven't compared. But to see someone who was once frowning, smile even for a moment, is worth it every time.”

Will we accomplish much next Wednesday? I don’t know. I suspect people will react to us differently than the man, evidently a preacher, who shouts on State street in front of a major department store. He tells people that they are going to hell if they don’t repent. That God hates sex and certainly despises gay people.

My God is a God of love. He is probably too often disappointed in me and my friends and humanity in general. But I can’t believe He hates us. This Thanksgiving, despite my sin of gluttony, I’m going to try to pass along some Love.

I invite you to join us, if not in physically in the Loop on Wednesday afternoon, then in spirit. If you can’t be in Chicago, try your own city or suburb. See what happens.

Pass it along.

I invite you to comment below as always. If you join us, please let us know how you fared.