A Small Return of Public Tenderness

The gestures were small enough to disappear from memory: a place held in a queue, a bus delayed by seconds, a dropped object returned, a seat reorganized. Their effect came from speed. Nobody had time to build an identity as a good person or a grateful recipient. The public situation changed for a moment because somebody noticed what would make it easier. The Pulse did not describe a newly kind world. It described short intervals in which strangers acted as if sharing a place created a minor responsibility. Tenderness appeared as coordination before it became sentiment.