Thought Press.

Today was Free Hug Day, as organized through a Facebook event. Location? Everywhere. Number confirmed participants? 879,258.

After posting about this a few days ago, I decided to hang a “FREE HUGS” sign on my cube at work today. I think some people thought I was just silly. I got a few chuckles as people walked past, many questions, and ended up giving five hugs by day-end. There was this one woman who kept asking about it throughout the day, so I finally said, “Do you want one or not? You’ve been avoiding it all day!” She shyly ran off.

Others I think seemed to feel uncomfortable with the thought. The guy that sits behind me made his own sign that read, “Hugs $.50″ (obviously, no website spell checks were required for the word 'hugs'). No one had heard of this international campaign! (They thought it was my ’strange’ creation) From all over the world, you can find hundreds of these free hugs pictures on Flickr. I used today to show people that acts of kindness are not so hard — yet it seems you will always have those who are made awkward by affection.

Look at these pictures. Who wouldn’t smile?