When a homeless man asks for a hug and you run away screaming, you’ve finally embraced your lack of faith in humanity. You’ve become fully rational. Let that sink in next time you drink so much your head spins. Don’t go to sleep that night. Instead, walk throughout the whole city, staring up at the semi-dark sky, free of all cares, enjoying your odd worthlessness. If you get mugged on your long walk, remember you can’t blame your muggers for not knowing any better. They’re still looking for ways to escape life through noble acts and petty favors to strangers.
Think back to that bum you refused to hug. His name is Eric Barns and he can expect to get at least a few hundred hugs before the day he dies. If you wanted, you could get a few hundred hugs in about ten minutes. Hugs are easy but still useful, you’ve got to admit. The primordial past gives hugs a specific value.
Wouldn’t you love to know the value of a hug, Eric? – No? That’s understandable, because you don’t really care, as long as someone else cares enough to give you some.
Awareness is brutal, you remind yourself, as you crawl back to your home in the early dawn.
It just so happens that you pass by Eric’s piss-filled alleyway. He’s nowhere around. Fuck it, you take a piss. Relieved and suddenly too tired to go on, you slump over and catch a few hours’ shut-eye, feeling right at home.