Would you hug a stranger?

We idle away so much time online. But once in a while our pointless meanderings lead us to a hidden gem, that lifts our day, our week, sometimes our lives.

Photo by Tom The Photographer on Unsplash

Today I happened upon such a gem. From CK Goldiing, who has made a warm, wise, wonderful short film: 61 HUGS, The Rehabilitation of an Overthinker.

61 HUGS

I’m often crippled by overthinking and I’m often in need of hugs (the two are correlated). I also had to sort an embarrassingly large pile of unnecessary clothes into ‘keeping’ or ‘donating’. So it was an inviting click for me. It has changed my day, in the best possible way.

CK Goldiing was given a challenge. To get 61 strangers to give him a hug on the walk from his house to Sheffield city centre. Instead of defaulting to his usual overthinkers procrastination, he just got on with it.

The resulting film is affectingly unaffected. Everyone CK asks for a hug goes on a journey from confusion to acceptance or, less often, refusal. Some open their arms as soon as they hear the word ‘hug’. Others open them cautiously, with varying degrees of bemusement. Others don’t open their arms at all. Many seem to delight in being part of a random, pointless, show of affection to the universe.

And CK’s journey through the challenge is just as beguiling, as is his enlightenment:

Overthinking is always the enemy of remarkable.

So it is. These charming 61 connections between strangers could so easily have never happened. And all of us touched by them would have been a little poorer. Spare 30 minutes to watch. You won’t be sorry. The ending is surprising and perfect….

My tribute to CK’s film is to write this. I have been thinking, overthinking, about posting on medium for the last few months. But today I’m not thinking about it. I’m just doing it.

Thank you CK.

Now I need to get back to those clothes.