366 Days of Kindness

"After the year was up, I realised that it was the best thing I had ever done, and I’d better just carry on! So I still do it every day (although I don’t post it every day as that got a bit…well… you know…)"

366 Days of Kindness - a day of kindness for each day in a leap year - an ideal we would all like to believe is possible and Bernadette Russell proves to us not only can it be done, but continued! She tells it honestly, it wasn't always easy but it didn't need to be. That's why it's so rewarding!

Sorry I was late!!!

At Stratford Circus, a delightful venue I have only just discovered, I bundled in 5mins late to the performance much to my dismay. I've never been late before and I'd been too involved in spring-cleaning my bedroom windows from the monster of mould that had consumed them - and time just flew by.

<--- Here's an example of why it took so long (EWWWWWWWW).

Anyway, so I got there 5mins in to a set-up of Bernadette CS, Gareth USL and a VT playing in the background. You got the feel very quickly, that this huge undertaking of kindness was not only a challenge but an immensely rewarding experience for both Bernadette and her lucky recipients. Whether it was leaving a pound on the seat of the tube for someone to find, donating books, writing cards or buying flowers, the gesture is one we all wish we'd give more time to.

And so, the show unfolded as a reel of pre-recorded VTs, projected images, contemporary dance (very well done Gareth), live music, an array of voices and Bernadette herself, re-telling, reenacting and re-engaging with a concept that has led her to continue to carry out acts of kindness every single day, beyond her 366 days. She started with buying a stamp for a boy in post office after seeing so much distress and pain on the news during the London riots in 2011 and so it went on. She even told me I have an angelic face and guessed that we could quite easily sit and drink tea and eat custard creams all evening. Little does Bernadette know that my love of custard creams goes far beyond my love of anything. I have at least 2 every morning with my tea and without them, I simply can't function. So very well done to her on that front, she got me down to a tee. I also really loved the idea of representing each of those people she came across with just one shoe. A shoe can say a lot about a persona and as shown in this picture, can accumulate quite quickly to show just how many people Bernadette came across.

Bernadette about to take on a Valentine's Day challenge

This is less of a review about the show, more an expression of absolute delight that there are still such examples of humanity amongst a world that is often very discouraging, unfair and self-indulgent. There were particular moments that I really connected with. For example, the VT from a man who at the time of Bernadette's impromptu installation of happiness, was suffering from depression after spending a long period of time in pain and on crutches. Bernadette's card to him telling him that he was brilliant and talented, was almost too much for him to take in as he replaced it within the envelope it arrived in. She had unknowingly given him the lift that he'd needed to push on.


Now, for me, one of the things that came through within the show was how much it cost Bernadette to carry out her task. She does not ignore the fact that it was costly. Now, I can barely scrape money together for my bills, so these kind of acts seemed a little inaccessible and intangible in the long-run, at least at the present moment. However, I like to think that I make the effort to be kind everyday. Or at least every day that I am in contact with other human beings. Whether it's giving up my seat so that a child and his dad can sit together on the bus, or putting my neighbours bins back after the dustmen have been, or sending a letter to a friend I haven't seen in a long time, I do small acts of kindness quite naturally. It wasn't just the money either, as Bernadette pointed out, we don't always have the time to sit and chat to a homeless person about what they would like ultimately but we do have time to give them a few quid to buy a meal and a drink. As a newbie to the media industry, all hours of the day are spent trying to prove myself, trying to tell myself I am NOT tired and that I CAN wake up at 5am tomorrow. Taking on hours to volunteer at the local charity shop is simply not an option so the things I do have to be simple and quick. We can all list hundreds of reasons to NOT spend a minute doing something kind, but Bernadette also proves that the simplest of things can make a huge difference to the recipient. It doesn't need to take up hours of the day.

www.standard.co.uk

For example, the evening rush hour, Friday night. We were all stood like zombies awaiting the bus to take us home. We all crammed in only for one man to swipe his oyster card and have the machine tell him he has no money. You see him let out a sigh that says, 'I really just want to get home right now'. Out steps a young lady from behind him and says, 'you know what, can you pay with contactless?' The driver nods and she taps her card against the machine for him and continues onto the bus. He grunts a very meek 'Thank you' without even looking her in the eye and sits down whilst myself and Kamal smile to one another and nod towards our comrade in the war that preaches kindness.

A mere second had passed and a man was made happy knowing that he was closer to his bed. I was made happier knowing that there ARE still nice people in the world (shortly crushed again when sitting in McDonalds not far from 15 teenagers being rude to the staff and boasting between one another about carrying weed in their bags and bragging about older boyfriends).

shortstops.info

Bernadette's show, is more than a show. It's a movement. Without realising, she has created an inspirational example of real people doing kind things for real people. It's like a chain letter that never ends. Even her friends have taken it on - and so should you. She may not have invented the idea of kindness or even at carrying out acts of kindness for a year but Bernadette certainly became a knight of the realm.

The proof is in the feeling I got on leaving. I squeezed Kamal's hand in delight and just felt at peace - which amongst my current manic schedule is a hard one. I went to the toilet before leaving only for a lady to approach me and tell me I have lovely hair. She was clearly a kind lady of nature but like me, would probably never tell anyone that she liked their hair but would dry her hands staring at it for just that moment too long until she realised she looked weird. That's normally me. Bernadette had given her the confidence in kindness to say it out loud. I was a little taken aback and only manager to mutter a 'thank you' and a giggle. I never did reply that to be honest 'your hair's better!'.

#366DaysOfKindness 

And so, as I said, it's not a review about a show. It's a review about an idea. An idea that we can all take on in our lives regardless of how poor we are, or how little time we have. We can all afford to thank the bus driver as we get on or off, or smile at the person on the tube that seems sad. It's like I heard from a young nurse at an NHS conference I've been covering this week, 'Compassion costs nothing. Kindness is free'. And so, I will always endeavour to be kind to people. Bernadette just proves that however hard it might seem sometimes, however impossible, however unreachable the aim of healing the world might seem; we can certainly start by being nice to one another - by being kind.

And the rest I leave for her to say - because she does it better.
Follow her blog, her shows, her twitter (@betterussell), her friends and more importantly FOLLOW HER LEAD: http://www.366daysofkindness.com/
Listen to her radio documentary here: http://www.prx.org/pieces/90121
Watch her video: https://vimeo.com/58617570 (Consider it an induction)

Will you take on the #366daysofkindness challenge?!