You Better Walk The Walk Before Talking The Talk

Kindness Experiment As Two Complete Strangers Walk From Birmingham To London With Zero Money And A Hope

Photo Source [Instagram]: Adam and John Crossing the Finishing Line

Adam Lind and John Sweeney were two complete strangers who were brought together by the force of curiosity. Just after one day of meeting each other, the duo decided to walk the walk of their lives – they were gonna walk from the villages of Birmingham to the dazzling lights of the city of London (a journey of 150 miles) over the span of 8 days without spending any money.

Now, how does one do that in this economy, you might ask? Well, to answer your query, I have only one explanation — Human Kindness. The duo wanted to rely on the raw, beautiful connection that one human being offers to another. Throughout the 150 miles, the duo wanted to solely rely on the people for food, water, and shelter.

They wanted to prove that even though sometimes it may seem like love doesn’t exist or it is nowhere to be found, that is just absolutely false. Love can take many shapes; it may hibernate from here to there, but it is never truly gone. It may find its way into the gentle hands that help you get up after you’ve tripped, it may be in the proud eyes of the stranger who always sees you practicing your skateboard tricks in the park, or in the musical notes of the tambourine player in the subway.

The Walk

During the first day of the journey, the duo started to lose a bit of hope, seeing that they could not spot anyone near the canals of Birmingham, but after finding a pub filled with people who offered them dinner with drinks, they quickly realized how foolish it was to lose hope.

“The human kindness became kind of like a ripple effect. We got given cards, we got bought a roast dinner, and we got incredible beer. The owners of the pub began showering us with gifts and gave us a trolley so it could help us on our way.” – Adam

At the pub, they also got offered their first stay by a sweet old couple, and the duo rested their backs, got showered in dog cuddles, and got lulled to sleep by the sweet hand of human kindness.

Through the midst of their journey, they realized that people had indeed been too kind, and they had too much food to carry with them, so they stopped at a local Tesco Food Bank and gave the food away to someone else in need.

Being powered by coffee and sweet human interaction, the duo carried on like there was no stopping them. So far, they had slept on a farm, in a teepee, on a boat, and in a caravan.

During the last day of their journey through Central London, the duo reflected on the last 7 days, which were filled with amazing experiences of human kindness. They claimed to have formed a ‘brotherhood’ with each other during their 8 days of journey.

“I think the highlight has been whenever I’ve felt like I’ve been rock bottom and felt like I couldn’t carry on, somebody has just lifted me up like.” – John

As they reached the finish line, people were already there awaiting their return, along with their friends and family, with ribbons and hurrays.

“And seeing the ripple effect of how many people wanted to celebrate human kindness, honestly feels life changing.”, said Adam, “And just remember that human kindness conquers all.”

The Aftermath

In the end, they partnered up with the guy who invented Wetherspoons (the game), Chris Illman, and gave away hot meals to people experiencing homelessness. A perfectly kind ending to a perfectly kind experiment.

This journey was only taken on by Adam and John to show the people, to us, that there still exists a world beyond our smartphones where people interact with each other and look out for each other. The energy booster that really lifted them was the interactions they had with people, the deep connections they formed with people upon having just met them. They fueled up on that connection and understanding.

“In the face of death, one asks oneself invariably: Did I see enough, hear enough, observe enough, love enough, did I listen attentively, did I appreciate, did I sustain the life?” – Anaïs Nin