Like everyone else, I have been thinking often about the picture of the New York City police officer kneeling down to help a homeless man put on a new pair of boots. I keep thinking about the man's feet, how cold and tired and sore they must have been. I think too about the officer's impulse, to go into the nearest shoe store and buy the man a warm pair of boots.  I think about the gentle approach of the officer and the way the photo came to us, a tourist taking the picture, noticing the beauty and sadness mingled in that moment. How she sent the picture to the police department and they put it up on their Facebook page without the officer knowing it. It says something, I think, that millions of people looked at the picture, liked it, shared it, tweeted it and mulled it over. I wonder where that man is now and if he is warm and safe.

I know this season is made up of thousands of such gestures, that there are Santas everywhere, young and old, finding quiet ways to give. But that moment on that bitterly cold Manhattan sidewalk will stay. 

I imagined what it would be like if one random December day everyone found a way 
to give another a pair of boots. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/29/nyregion/photo-of-officer-giving-boots-to-barefoot-man-warms-hearts-online.html