‘I used to be a broker in London, working 12-hour days. It wasn’t for me. Then I went off and traveled the world and connected with people. That’s what it’s all about. That’s where the magic is. Heart to heart’.

Leon Logothetis has invented something amazing. It’s the first vehicle, anywhere on Earth, to run on kindness. Leon calls his marvelous machine Kindness One and describes it as being a little like ‘Air Force One, but smaller, yellower and kinder’.

Kindness One, also known as a sometimes-temperamental 1978 Chang Jiang vintage motorcycle, is taking Leon on the most fantastic voyage imaginable. It is one rooted in connection and compassion, one that is designed to determine how far kindness can get a person and one that strikes quite a chord in our studio here at OM®.

Since he set out from Hollywood a little over a fortnight ago, carrying (in his words) ‘no cash, no food, no nothing’, our intrepid traveler has been reliant on human kindness. He has found it in an abundance.

Rather than telling Leon’s tale for him, we’ll let him explain (for he’ll do it rather better than us). Take a look at this short film. It’s guaranteed to make you smile . . .

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPlyhdGSi_0&w=560&h=315]

You might be wondering how Leon is getting on, and how far he has traveled. You’ll be delighted to hear that, as we speak, he’s at sea having persuaded the captain of a cargo ship sailing from New York to take him and Kindness One to Europe. The crossing is due to take 11 days. Leon is confident that the people he encounters in Spain will prove to be as kind as those who aided his efforts in the United States.

Traveling from coast to coast, Leon found food and shelter. Some people bought gas for Kindness One. In Pittsburgh, desperate for a place to stay, Leon happened upon a homeless man called Tony, who let him bunk down alongside him in a dilapidated old garage.

‘That was so inspiring,’ says Leon. ‘So humbling for me. He offered me a place to stay, he gave me food, he gave me some clothes. He inspired me’.

Echoing the notion of the chain reaction that we’ve often blogged about in the past, Leon set off from Hollywood hoping to inspire a ‘critical mass of kindness’. It’s our opinion that he has done so already, and he still has Europe and Asia to negotiate before his return to the West Coast.

‘When I return to Hollywood in a few months from now, I want our world to be a kinder place,’ he says. ‘I’m hoping to prove that, although love might make the world go round, it’s kindness that inspires love’. In this, we think that the evidence speaks for itself.

Here at OM®, where encouraging such things as kindness, compassion and connection has long been our raison d’etre, we’d like to wish Leon well on the long road ahead. We’d also like to thank him: for helping to further the kindness movement; for providing further proof that, in all our efforts, we’re on the right lines; and for demonstrating that kindness is out there, in plentiful supply, and that one doesn’t have to look all that hard in order to find it. The last word, we’ll leave to Leon . . .

‘The world, my friends, can sometimes be a dark place, but we’re going to prove that kindness and the generosity of the human spirit are what really matter,’ he adds. It goes without saying that we couldn’t agree more . . .

We are all connected.