Int’l Free Hug Day

4-4, Int’l Free Hug Day

Ok, so I woke up this morning with a mission. I was going to hug for several hours. Random people on the street were going to be getting my hugs and sharing in the love and joy that is my existence for hours today.

I bought my poster board, made my sign, and headed to Boystown. And that is where the problem lay…

Now, being a nervous as hell drama queen, I made a PSA ON THE TRAIN about Hug Day, making sure people knew what was going on when they saw people hugging random strangers. It’s disconcerting, I admit, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me.

I held my sign out for the world to see as I walked to the corner of Addison and Halstead, right in front of the police station, and proceeded to announce my presence in my best Herald voice. That’s right, all those years as a Renaissance Herald, as well as vocal and theater experience, made useful to hug people. Broadcasting phrases like, “Int’l Free Hugs day! Free hugs for anyone and everyone!” “No hug will be denied!” “The hugs are free, but if not me, hug the people you love today!” Oh yeah, truth is stranger than fiction.

Anyway, I stood there from a little before noon to 4:10, laughing and smiling and joking, spreading love and joy one hug at a time. I even got a couple of the officers from the station behind me involved, which is awesome. That’s one of the two main reasons I picked that spot. Cops need love as much as anyone else. They have a HELL job. They are hated by just about everyone at one point or another, and that kind of stress needs to be let go now and then, even just a little, tugged free by a short little redhead bent on world-dominion ala “I love you, damn it!”

People were jumping out of cars, hanging out car windows reaching out for hugs. I had people on opposite corners from me hugging each other, which was so great! I passed a couple ‘air-hugs’ to people while laughing because it was silly and fun and beautiful.

But I know now why I was supposed to be there as opposed to Watertower Place where everyone else was. One man. It was about 2 hours in, and I turned, as I did often while waving my sign about, and saw his standing there. He was obviously upset, but he reached out for a hug. I gave him one, and he started weeping. Not enormous, ground-breaking tears, but he needed to connect, and there I was. The world fell away, and Int’l Free Hug Day was put on hold. This young man needed to go to that police station behind me for the same reason he was crying, and I was not about to let him ford that river alone. He explained what happened, and when he’d collected himself, I took him into the station. I emerged needing a hug myself, and I got one from a woman all too eager to share love with me as get it in return. It put me back on track to exchange my joy, and so I did. He emerged again, better but still hurting, so he got hug #2, and stayed near as things came to a close. Hug #3 capped it off, and though I never got his name, I know he was the reason I was supposed to be on that corner. I fulfilled the universe’s design for me that day. Can’t ask for more than that. And if he ever reads this, know that I will remember you always as a beautiful person that I want to see smile.

My hugs ended with aching legs and objecting shoulders, but I was high as a kite off the joy, so I decided to head to Give Peace a Dance for the first time. Awesomesauce, as Shivian would say. People I knew and people I didn’t, many of whom had Hugged as well, so we shared in that joy and some of those stories, ending our day together in companionship and community. What a day. What a glorious, beautiful, freakish, amazing day.