All the meanness in the world, from abuse, to bullying, to gang violence, can be attributed to people who "have lost touch with their heart."
That's the message of Brock Tully, a Vancouver writer and speaker whose has pedalled his message around North America not once, but three times.
"I really believe that the solution to all our challenges, gang violence, crystal meth, abuse and bullying of kids... is creating a culture of kindness."
Tully, 62, is cycled through Surrey and Langley last Monday, on the last leg of his "Kindness, Cycle it Forward" tour, begun in Vancouver in September.
Along an 18,000-kilometre route that included Salt Lake City and Phoenix, Arizona, through the southern U.S. states and back up the west coast, he has arranged presentations to school children about bullying and kindness.
"It is kind of an anti-bullying presentation, that is inspiring, but it focuses on a solution, which is kindness."
He makes his talks interesting and instructive, through multi-media presentations and juggling acts, and he aims at making children understand why bullying happens, and how to stop it, he said.
He also hands out bracelets to the children, with "kindness" written in nine different languages. The children start each day with the bracelet on their left, wrist, and move it to their right, upon an act of kindness.
Bullies, he says, have lost touch with their heart, and pick on people with qualities they have lost touch with in themselves, he says.
Because their victims don't understand this, they take it personally, he said, but the bully is actually jealous.
"If kids see that they are being bullied because of something lacking in the bully, not because something is wrong with them (the victim), it is really empowering."
As a UBC student, Tully says, he was "a jock," by all appearances outgoing and popular, yet with many problems. He was drinking too much and was suicidal when he decided in 1970 to cycle around North America.
He describes that 1970 tour not as a 10,000-mile trip, but a 12-inch journey, "from my head to my heart, which included Washington D.C., the southern states, and Mexico.
"I reconnected with my heart and I am living a life of purpose."
Tully is the first to admit he is not perfect.
"I am not always kind. We all falter, but it is important to get back up and keep trying."
He writes inspirational books, the Reflections series, and appears as a keynote inspirational speaker while living in Vancouver.
He is the co-founder of the Kindness Foundation of Canada, and in 2000 he again set off by bike to take his message to across Canada and the U.S. hitting New Brunswick, New York, Miami, the southern States and the West Coast.
On this trip, Tully is pulling a 70-pound trailer behind his bicycle, and had just travelled up the West Coast, through "freezing snowstorms and unbelievable winds," taking a ferry to Victoria from Washington, before travelling through Vancouver to Langley on his way to Kamloops.
He will return to Vancouver on May 3.
"It has been amazing. I come in and offer (a presentation) and a lot of schools have invited me in."
At cycleitforward.org, people can follow Tully's daily journey.
