“The Imbalance of Kindness” – a moving true-life reflection on compassion, loneliness, and the power of kindness to pierce indifference.

A short story and powerful reminder that kindness is free, and love can restore our shared humanity, how we can feel something spiritual—like God, like Christ—through human recognition.

The Man with the Mangled Palm

One time, in 1994, on les Rue des Tuileries, Paris bustling, people shoving past as if there wasn’t enough oxygen for all of us, I saw a man sitting on the pavement at the kerbside, his back turned to the main road. He was white-haired, dressed in light-coloured clothes that looked worn through.

A Glow of Sadness

As I walked towards where he sat, moving with the crowd bustling in front of me, I kept my eyes on him. He looked… glowing, almost. Not with happiness, but with immense sadness. His head hung low, facing the pavement, his shoulders hunched forward as if he were trying to disappear into himself. His white hair was so white it looked as if it covered his whole head and fell down to his shoulders. His clothes were pale, but old and ragged. 

Heart Breaking

People passed him, so many people, and it was heartbreaking. It felt like they didn’t see him at all. Or didn’t even exist. I reached into my pocket for a coin as I got closer. Then I saw his bare feet. And I saw his hands too, laid in his lap, fingerless, to the bone at the edges of his stumpy palms. He held them in his lap, in hope.

The Power of Touch

Standing opposite him, he didn’t look up until I reached down and let my own fingers brush his naked palm—just for a second, before placing a coin onto his palm. And then he looked up into my face.

The Power of Connection

His eyes—crystal blue—pierced me, hitting my soul like lightning. I looked back at him with softness and despair, wishing I could undo the cruelty of the world. I placed the coin in his hand, and after a brief pause and acknowledgement from one human to another, I turned to go. 

Jesus, God and Kindness

In that moment, I genuinely wondered if I’d seen Jesus Christ and felt God.

Imagine that if we lived in a world where love and connection filled all spaces, how much more harmonious man’s existence would be. And kindness is free.

Whenever I have felt or feel God, I am reminded of truth, humanity, and the power of faith. And it is that truth that keeps my feet humbled and firmly on the ground.

A Gift of Remembrance

I wrote a poem honouring the depth of what I felt for the elderly, white-haired, poverty-stricken homeless man sitting alone in the middle of a busy route in Paris, 1994 — and called it The Imbalance of Kindness: The Man with the mangled Palm. Shared in my publication, A Leap of Faith

And it touches a chord with me, a gift of remembrance each time I revisit it. Whilst no one else noticed him, I will forever remember his existence with an open heart of love.

Love AJ X