Extreme Kindness

Erik's Journal - September 21, 2002

Geography: The City of Saskatoon.

Point form day: -Up at 7:00 -yoga -breakfast -began the kindness marathon with just the four of us running around the deserted streets of Saskatoon on a Saturday morning -we ended up polishing the old antique wood at the a B&B, giving hugs to police officers, styling hair at a hairdressing school, cleaning up garbage, helping movers move -back at the hotel for 9:00am to begin the hotel portion of the marathon -at the hotel we: handed out warm beverages and muffins, shining shoes, carrying umbrellas for people on the street, performed hand massages and gave out flowers -proceeded to the streets with muffins and hot chocolate -found a farmers market and started a pay it forward game by giving hot chocolate to a woman who was selling flowers, she decided to pay a flower forward to a woman selling baked goods who passed on a muffin to another woman selling honey….. and on and on. It ended up going between about 15 people and the object changed from flowers to baked goods to beer nuts to tomatoes to a cucumber to herbs to bread. -Met back at the hotel -headed out with all the CHIP employees and lots of supplies to the local police station, at the police station we shined shoes, gave massages, were locked in a cell, passed out coffee and muffins, gave hugs, conversed with the bike police we had met earlier in the day, - moved on, back to the farmers market -gave away more flowers, watermelon, and met some great people -back to the hotel to regroup -off the costume shop - got out fitted with costumes, Erik (chicken), Chris (Santa), Brad (elf), Val (horse) -wandered the streets giving out hugs and insoles -went into a local mall -played with some kids, gave out CD’s, insoles, hats –got kicked out of the mall –ran into CTV on the streets and filmed: folding cloths at a clothing store, taking photos with a local band, helping cook at a Chinese food restaurant – ate the best spring rolls I have ever eaten (sorry Dad) –met up with Iona who took us to a retirement home –mopped floors –talked and listened – played games –watched our spot on the 6:00 News -went back to the hotel for dinner -celebrated Dave’s birthday –left for a local bar called Overdrive –waited in a long line for about 5 minutes before we were let in by the owner -had a long night and met a lot of very interesting people –drove the motor home back at 3:00am –hit the sack at about 4:00am sheesh! What a day.

Highlight of the day: Our kindness marathon as a whole was a serious highlight of the tour. It was one of our best yet. I thoroughly enjoyed running first thing in the morning with C,V, and B. It was cold and difficult to get going but defiantly distilled what we do to the core. It was four friends going out having fun and affecting positive change.

Most inspiring moment: Encountering people like the guy who owned the Chinese food restaurant. He was genuinely stoked on what we were doing. All day we met people like this guy who were loving what we were doing. It is so nice to see inspired and enthusiastic people.

Shout outs: Darryl Grace, keep doing good things for the world. We made it happen. The owners of Spotlight for lending us the costumes. Charlie and Ed for coming out on to the streets with us, thanks a lot. Iona, thanks for directing us to the retirement home, you are one of the most vibrant and inspirational women I know. Chris (from Overdrive), for being the coolest woman with the coolest friends.

Classic Quote: “Look it’s Gahandi!” –me making a joke as we approached a bald headed statue from behind in downtown Saskatoon. We all figured that was particularly funny because it was probably some Canadian politician. In fact turned out to be Gahandi. Bizzare eh?

My Crux: That was a long day with no lunch break. Heavy.

Physically Speaking: I burnt my armpit on an iron while changing to go out. I had an insanely sore throat from all the smoke at the bar.

Mental Stimulation: Brainstorming on the fly involves some serious mental work.

Big Laughs: Wandering the mall in costume. I was following people and pecking them.

When I finished writing this I was: Sitting comfortably while listening to Beastie Boys.