WE ALL KNOW by now that they Humans of New York Facebook page can be a rollercoaster of emotion.
The latest post is timely in the shadow of the migrant crisis, and tells the story of a man whose son gave away apricots behind his back as they walked home from the shop.
Today’s his tenth birthday. He’s a very emotional young man. He likes to solve other people’s problems. One time when he was five years old, he came with me to the store and we bought two pounds of fresh apricots. I let him carry the bag home. He walked a little bit behind me the entire way. After awhile, I asked him to hand me an apricot. ‘I can’t,’ he said. ‘I’ve given them all away.’ I knew then that I was raising a humanitarian.
The post has been shared over 14,000 times since it was posted earlier this evening with thousands of comments from people admiring the man’s son.
One of the most popular comments came from none other than the President of the United States, Barack Obama.
Writing from the White House Facebook account, he said:
What an inspirational story. One of the most fulfilling things that can happen to you as a parent is to see the values you’ve worked to instill in your kids start to manifest themselves in their actions, and this one really resonated with me. I hope this young man never loses his desire to help others. And I’m going to continue doing whatever I can to make this world a place where he and every young person like him can live up to their full potential. (And if I ever get to meet him, I hope he’ll save me an apricot!) – bo
It’s not the first time a government official has taken to the HONY page to give kudos, Hillary Clinton previously commented on a post about a young boy who expressed his worries about being homosexual.
