It's 3 a.m. It's pitch black. A voice somewhere near is calling desperately "help, anybody help". I stumble into some clothes and head to the shoreline of our lake to encounter a young man making his way to shore. His buddy to whom he has been calling is somewhere out in the lake. All I have handy is a kayak which I launch quickly and head out trying to locate the buddy from the sound of his voice. When I reach him, I grab his hand in a spontaneous gesture of human contact and in that moment have the profound vicarious experience of what it must feel like to know that help has come after two or more hours in cold water with hypothermia taking hold. The young man, after a hospital stay, is fine. For me the memory lingers as a reminder of the importance of human connection at all times but especially when we are in trouble of any kind. [Russell]