James T took this, popping up from between steel bars of his staircase, turning the camera around on me, making me see. I think he can do that without realising it. Can someone be an accidental hero? Can you be an oblivious lifesaver? Maybe helping someone, hearing someone, seeing someone, showing them something they didn’t even know they needed to see so that they can know what they need to know- maybe those are acts of altruism that do not need to be motivated by intention. Because if someone sets out to do something that good, and that important, the moment they encounter the realisation of what it is, that altruism- that immeasurable, unfalsifiable and arguably non-existent thing- which had until then kept its shape, undisturbed, suddenly falls away like ashes do when you touch them, soft but now not even the silhouette of what it used to be. I don’t pick friends for their good qualities, to fill some sort of quota, to tick boxes, or to admire them, or to surround myself with good things. It just so happens that one of mine happens to have shown me empirical evidence that altruism exists. So thank you, Herr Professor. Thank you, I will come down from your shoulders now. I have my own apples. How do you like them apples? Anyway, I didn’t pick them. I think they picked me.
