the drunken man

Despite the stubborn cold that I can't seem to shake off I ventured out today. Had lunch with a friend and then headed into town for some shoe shopping.

At the subway, after saying goodbye to my lunch date, I saw a homeless man selling the magazine "Situation Stockholm". He approached me and asked me to buy a magazine. I checked my wallet. I had 38.-, and the magazine cost 40.-. The homeless man, who was obviously drunk (which they are not allowed to be whilst selling the paper, but hey, who am I to judge as long as they are nice to people), said it was ok.

I thanked him and gave him the 38.-. He told me to read the article about a Swedish musician on page 14. I said I would. He told me his father, despite belonging to the conservative party, really liked the musician. His father was 90 years old and still hard as nails. "He gave me hell" he continued, with a genuine look of distress in his eyes. "his wife, on the other hand" he told me "is a pillar of strengh. She is 83 years old and has put up with me, my alcoholism and my strict conservative father for all these years".

I didn't really know what to say, so I simply said  "we're all lucky to have those important people in our lives" or something like that. And as soon as I'd said my blahdiblah-nothingness big tears started to fall from his eyes. Lots of tears.

"I don't know what to do when she dies!" he cried. "She's the only one in the world who is on my side. The only one I have in my life who tries to help me."

I stood there, perplexed, and didn't know what to say or do. I also wondered why these situations with strangers always seem to happen to me? The drunken guy cried quietly and all I could think of was to give him a hug. So there I was, hugging this homeless man, getting horrified looks from bypassers. And then I thought - a little more sympathy, warmth and cuddling wouldn't go amiss in society. Would it?