Extreme Kindness

Chris's Journal - October 13, 2002

The Skinny

Finally, we have reached the heartland of Canada! The cn tower guided us into the city, poking its pointed head out from the fog that blanketed the city. We braved the fifteen lanes of traffic and reached the sandalwood suites in mississauga early Thursday afternoon. being an hour out of the city’s core (and because we had a few near collisions while trying to navigate our super-tanker down the skinny lanes that lead to the city’s hearth) we decided to rent a mini-van. Now we could race faster than a speeding bullet-train to our events and activities, and reach extensive areas in the city.

Our kindness marathon began at 4:00 Friday morning with a visit to city tv’s breakfast television and then a radio interview with ez rock. Our seed was planted, the requests came flying in: Come speak at our school; have dinner with us; I’ll style your hair, boys; a food bank for you to work at, too. AS ALWAYS, WE TRIED FOR AS MANY AS POSSIBLE; AS FOR THE REST, we hope by posting these requests on our message board others in the community can take up the banner.

This weekend in t.o. was aN OVERWHELMING barrage of kind-acts and sight-seeing excursions. From the mundane to the magnificent we took in all that Toronto had to offer, and through our acts of kindness we tried to offer as much in return. Late night excursions (6:00am!) were made to Niagara falls, we watched a raptors game (thanks to kim oz!), staged the largest-and-only kindness protest in Toronto’s history, spent a night serving thanksgiving dinner at the progress place (a transition center for people with mental issues), served a free breakfast on thanksgiving day and massaged calloused DANCER-feet at the national ballet (ooh, that was tough!). The queen even had a taste of extreme kindness when we (WITH THE AID OF 20 CRAZED KIDS) made a valiant attempt to breach her security as she left her hotel. However, the police said we would have to display our kindness from afar, so we shouted our slogans and cheered as she left the city.

Our kindness crew labored to prove that Toronto truly is the “heart”-land of Canada. We wondered, were there still acts of compassion and love on the gritty streets of Toronto? at first, people were turning our hugs and affection away quicker than a child pushes away Her liver-AND-ONIONS, but PERSEVERANCE HAD ITS WAY, AND SOON ENOUGH, THEY warmed to our OWN PARTICULAR good-lum acts of charity. A JOB WELL DONE! We can safely say that kindness is alive and thriving on the HECTIC AND eclectic streets of Toronto. FROM CHINATOWN TO LITTLE ITALY, WE TRAVELLED ACROSS THE FAMED DIVERSITY OF TORONTO, AND SAW HOW THESE SIMPLE acts of goodwill CAN cross racial, religious and cultural boundaries. KINDness- like music- is a universal language.

Our challenge to you: send us your own kindness quotes that you believe will inspire others to great acts of goodwill and we’ll post them on the site.