Maybe Loving Kiva is Like Seeing Beauty in the Eyes of Skunks.....

[Guest]

.

[Jill]

    or.....

    Why Some People Become Kiva Addicts and Others Don't.

Laurie and W.F. Glenda--

      I saw in the Coaching the Field Partners thread,  http://www.kivafriends.org/index.php/topic,559.0.html
  (and really related to) your musings about friends and family members being seemingly impervious to the Kiva spell.   

      Since last November, when I first got bewitched, myself,  I've been struggling with trying to understand ( maybe even  to"forgive"?!) the waytoomany of my loving-hearted friends and family whom I haven't been able to convince to come over to "our side," to see the Kiva light.   At times, it's almost become laughable -- my wondering, did I really know these people, after all?

     Because very little for me goes in a straight line, your/my queries brought to mind part of a Naomi Shihab Nye poem I have long loved.  I'm going to go ahead and paste it, here, followed by a portion of an entry I submitted to Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky's wonderful wonderful Favorite Poem Project, of a few years back, when I was teaching.   It may (may not) suggest an answer to that question that clearly, has sometimes frustrated and perplexed  the three/ and maybe many more of us.

      The Poem:

Valentine  for  Ernest  Mann


You can’t order a poem like you order a taco.
Walk up to the counter, say, “I’ll take two”
and expect it to be handed back to you
on a shiny plate.


Still, I like your spirit.
Anyone who says, “Here’s my address,
write me a poem,” deserves something in reply.
So I’ll tell you a secret instead:
poems hide.  In the bottoms of our shoes,
they are sleeping.  They are the shadows
drifting across our ceilings the moment
before we wake up.  What we have to do
is live in a way that lets us find them.


Once I knew a man who gave his wife
two skunks for a valentine.
He couldn’t understand why she was crying.
“I thought they had such beautiful eyes.”
And he was serious.  He was a serious man
who lived in a serious way.  Nothing was ugly
just because the world said so.  He really
liked  those skunks.  So, he re-invented them
as valentines and they became beautiful.
At least, to him.  And the poems that had been
    hiding
in the eyes of skunks for centuries
crawled out and curled up at his feet.


Maybe if we re-invent whatever our lives give us
we find poems.  Check your garage, the odd
     sock
in your drawer, the person you almost like, but
    not quite.
And let me know.
                              
                  NAOMI  SHIHAB  NYE


     

        Part of My Submission To Robert Pinsky's Favorite Poem Project: 

        "..... When I first read Naomi Shihab Nye’s “Valentine for Ernest Mann”, there was only one part of it that I “got,” only one part of it that touched me, but I loved that part so much that I sent the poem to people all over the country. 

          I’d gotten the biggest kick out of the image of the man giving his wife 2 skunks for a Valentine’s present.  The scene of it was so vivid for me, I was just charmed by it.  I could feel the wife’s shock, her utter disbelief that her husband was calling a couple of smelly skunks her Valentine’s present. 

          But even more, because it’s happened to me so many many times, I could understand how the husband had found beauty where others seemed unable to see it.  I knew how natural it was, how compelling it felt to him to want to share that beauty, especially with someone he loved.  I knew, also, how---- so totally entranced by that beauty, himself---- it was absolutely incomprehensible to him that anyone else could help but see and feel that same beauty. 

       It was like the story of my life, and I got solace from it, realizing that he and I were the luckier for the beauty we’ve been able to find....."


         While that doesn't crack the conundrum in any way that would be instructive for those of us who want to bring more people aboard (Kiva), you may be able to feel a tiny bit of that same solace I felt in the realization that

   We're all the luckier for the dream and hope we're able to see in Kiva.
   

[Wood Fairy Glenda]

Love it, Jill  , and I must admit, I'm one who does see beauty in the eyes of skunks and flies and toads..... but then again, I find this gorgeous too:

[Laurie]

Well, Glenda... you just find that creepy, crawly caterpillar gorgeous... BECAUSE IT IS!   

Jill, that is a wonderful poem and a great image.

Yes, it's true that we all are attracted to (and repelled by) different things... and we have to decide where we are going to "spend" our available time.  I spend a lot of mine on Kiva, and on Kiva Friends, which also means on the computer.  Lots of folks don't like to do that, don't find enjoyment in ferreting out the secrets of interesting websites (count my husband among them).

To be a Kiva addict, you have to have some free time AND you have to at least tolerate computers (liking 'em is better).

I have noticed that the one friend who is now rather addicted is also someone who has spent time in "third world" countries, as have I.  Perhaps that makes a difference?  My friend who has looked at Kiva and made a couple loans is WAY more well-off, but has less free time and travels "First World" and first-class, at that.  Is it something different about how you view your own condition relative to other members of the human family?  I don't know.

We gave a fairly large gift certificate to my husband's neice - 40-something, well off, well educated, someone we really like and relate to - and she hasn't even redeemed it yet, after several weeks!  What a surprise to me - even with the learning curve, I would have had loans out within a couple days.  One great thing - if she doesn't eventually use it - I WILL!

Safe travels,
Laurie

[Henry]

Wood Fairy Glenda,  you have an Abbot's Sphinx caterpillar - Sphecodina abbottii, much prettier as a baby which you shot.  Here's what it grows into:  (I think)  I love finding your bugs!

[Wood Fairy Glenda]

Good ID, Henry! (which means you got the same result I did when I searched it - http://www.whatsthatbug.com is great for a starter, any of you who want to check out your critters)...... and, speaking of beauty being in the eye of the beholder, how about this relative of the Abbott's Sphinx, the Clearwing Hummingbird Sphinx? I think it's quite beautiful, and FINALLY got a non-blurry photo of it as it took a sip of swamp milkweed nectar.  It flies like a hummingbird, with very rapid wingbeats.

[Jill]

    Why do some of us become Kiva addicts and others don't?

    Because some of us can look at a face like this, a photo like this,
see all kinds of beauty and basically, just fall in love with it -- with her.


http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=14896



     Pretty subtle way for me to try to resurrect my own thread,
don't you think ?!

    (Well, at least I made a loan to her,
so both she and I are getting something out of this).

[Henry]

Time to teach Jill about 'shrinkage' 
Jill, in case you don't know...and...  in case you didn't mean to knock my soda into the floor when your post opened

when you insert an image it looks like this between the brackets:  http://www.kiva.org/img/w800/50959.jpg
where it says w800 creates the size of the image
if you change it to something like this  http://www.kiva.org/img/w200/50959.jpg
it would look like this:


just in case you were thinking .." wow, that's a big picture! "

[Jill]

       Was just outside with my friend on the Rose Garden (Hood Canal/Olympic Mountains) side of the house here at Splashdown
   
(yes, I am incredibly lucky to live where I live, and I think about that, often, since that's not even talking about what's on the other side of the house),
checking to see which roses had burstopenfrombud since the last time I looked. 
     
       I found myself pondering (more) about Kiva and Kiva Friends
and the question that was the initial inspiration for this thread,
           
        Why Some People Become Kiva Addicts and Others Don't

     Related was How Come Some Of Us, (I was particularly thinking),
                   How Come I
Persisted in Following That Labyrinthine (sp?) Path to Kiva Friends

        and then decided, at least for Right Now, to hang out and stay awhile.

        I can't remember if,  but I think I did tell you that before this, I never ever had been to a chat room, a discussion forum, a "mating" website, or anything like that -- and, what's more, I wasn't worried at all about what I might be missing out on for my not having checked them out.

       For me, it's kind of a "no brainer" how I ended up at Kiva Friends. 
That was probably due, almost entirely, to the fact that those family members, friends, (and neighbors, acquaintances, strangers I've accosted about Kiva) I mentioned at the beginning of this--- just were not "getting it,"

     and because I saw SO MUCH (hope, possibility, whatever) in the Kiva Concept,
truth is, it made me feel a little (a lot?) lonely when the people I loved (and others) couldn't --

                      see what I was seeing.

      But where you all come in, now, is that when I was out there, living my luxurious life, being in fresh, clean air, surrounded by absolute beauty,
         I thought it would be interesting to get some of your responses (if -- you feel like giving them) to the question,

      But, Why Kiva?

(Of all the innumerable and incredible organizations and groups there are out there, who want to and who could, and, in some cases, who actually have been able to snag us --
our hearts, our time, our pocketbooks,

         WHY (for each of you) KIVA?

       I feel like I've probably answered that question, myself, pretty comprehensively, in some of my posts --

                         in the Mark Agwonah Thread, http://www.kivafriends.org/index.php/topic,667.0.html
                                   
                       in my Introduction post,
http://www.kivafriends.org/index.php/topic,98.30.html     and,
       
                  if you read between the lines, or, in some cases,
             if you just read the lines of some of the quotes and poems I posted
                      in the Interesting Quotes Thread
      http://www.kivafriends.org/index.php/topic,396.0.html


but what about you? (Sort of expanding on the I LOAN BECAUSE theme, I guess).


Related, well, maybe not so related (oh, yes they are related),
I'm trying really hard not to take up MORE space
by telling you more about, and by trying to sell you on
(of course, if anybody wants to ask about....)

three (of many others) of my favorite other organizations,
who, by the way, are probably getting less dinero, certainly less of my attention,
thanks to another organization that begins with a K and ends with an A.

Ryan's Well Foundation
http://www.ryanswell.ca/

Partners in Health
http://www.pih.org/home.html

Southern Poverty Law Center
http://www.splcenter.org/index.jsp
http://www.tolerance.org/teach/index.jsp

       

         Don't get lost and forget "your homework," (totally optional and for which, yes, of course, extra credit will be given)

      WHY (for you) KIVA?

      As I was going back over this, trying to insert hyperlinks, and the like, above,
  it occurred to me that trying to answer this might be a little boring for some/all? of you -- as in,

        "Oh, we've already talked about this.  I don't want to do anymore."

     You know what.....       if you don't feel like it, that's ok.   

         


        Well, I'm off for the day.  I've got to go replace my keyboard. 
  Somehow, the one I have got worn out.....



 

[RichardF]

Why Kiva?

It fits.

[Wood Fairy Glenda]

(I think I'm going to use as many words as Jill in this one) .  I was asked by Fiona, a while ago, to write a short blurb on why I decided to lend to Kiva.  Here is what I wrote for her:
     
     I read about Kiva loans this February, not long after I returned from a volunteer vacation in Nicaragua, helping in a reforestation project.  I was about to be part of a Habitat for Humanity house-building team in western Guatemala.  I went on-line out of curiosity and hope (the article had made it sound like an idea that would appeal to me).  I immediately put in money for a loan and became “hooked on microlending.”
     
     I love the feeling of connection I have to the people to whom I lend money via Kiva.  I support these people wholeheartedly in their daily struggles to meet the needs of their families.
     
     I was fortunate to have been born to a good family in a country in which we have many advantages.  I’ve had a loving family and a good education and never have experienced real need. 
     
     Now I am almost 67 years old and am a widow.  I am by no means a rich person in the United States, but I do not need all the money that I have.  Nor do my children, who are quite capable of taking care of themselves. I have made the decision to spend the rest of my life helping people who have not had the advantages that I have had in life. 
     
     I have more than I need, and there are many thousands of people all over the world who have far less than they need.  I just want to equalize things a little before I die.  It’s as simple as that.