Walking through London’s Bloomsbury Square at around noon today, I saw a woman: black hair, purple coat, she was limping and appeared to be distressed, her face red and tearful.
What do I wish? That I had obeyed my impulse to step toward her, ask if she was alright and if there was anything I could do to help. But I didn’t.
What’s the worst that could have happened? What if she was mentally ill and behaved aggressively towards me? I didn’t consider that at the time though, I think I was just too reserved to make that spontaneous gesture.
Perhaps my intervention would have done no good at all or made things worse. Perhaps there was nothing wrong after all. But perhaps a moment of friendship was just what she needed. I still wish I’d followed that small impulse towards our human community.
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