Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow; How to Stay on Kiva Website Without Ever Leaving

[Guest]

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[Odette]

Great picture, Fred!  I'm sure you haven't changed much over the years.   
Thanks for sharing.  How did you manage to be in the Peanut Gallery?

[Jill]

        Well, Odette, your insistence upon bringing us back to The Peanut Gallery
has provided me with the excuse -- as if I have ever needed an excuse --
to tell you all about a memory that Fred's lovely confession reawakened in me:

       Because some minds are stranger than others, it took me back to a kind of sad epiphany I'd experienced
upon reading the autobiography of a now grown African American Civil Rights activist. 
(I'm sorry to say I don't remember which; I've read so much about that time in this country's history because,
for whatever reason, it has long had so much significance for me).
      Getting back to the Peanut Gallery:

      At one point, probably early in her book, this courageous, bright, committed woman recounted how she and her siblings
used to sit in front of the TV set everyday, in happy anticipation of Howdy Doody coming on; they loved it so. 
But, then she went on to talk about the psychic and deeply felt pain that she and her brothers and sisters used to also feel,
every time they watched the show.     
And that all had to do with the kids in the Peanut Gallery,
the everyday changing group of youngsters, like Our Fred, who were featured as part of the show,
who'd had the terrific great luck of being able to get on the program and have their thrilling, if fleeting, 15 minutes of fame. 

       Because I was white and oblivious, it never even occurred to me to notice
when I looked at the same Peanut Gallery/ies those kids were looking at,
but it turns out that as hard and diligently as they tried, each day, to spot kids who looked like they did in the Peanut Gallery,
they never found them.  There just weren't any. 
And it made them feel so sad, so "less than," as though they weren't, for some reason, good enough
to be allowed to participate.  And they carried that "less than good enough" feeling around with them
for years and years.

     The part about me being white and oblivious.....
  When I went to "teacher school"  -- to get a Masters in Teaching at a local university,
one of the most valuable lessons I learned while there was thanks to an article they made us read
on something called "White Privilege."

     My god, it was an eye-opener, a mind-provoker,
and I have been grateful ever since that they exposed me to it and
made me think about things I maybe would have taken years (possibly, lifetimes?)
before it would have occurred to me to think about "that stuff" on my own.


    Because the experience for me was so rich,
the other day I decided to see if I could find the article I'd read on the Internet --
because I felt like I wanted to share it with you guys (well, with anyone who would be interested).

    I was thrilled when I was able to find it -- I LOVE the Internet --
and I will start another thread, sometime today or tomorrow,
which thread I'll entitle "White Privilege" where I will post it --
in case anybody besides me wants to read it.....

[Fred]

I'm sure you haven't changed much over the years.    How did you manage to be in the Peanut Gallery?

Glad I turned out looking less goofy than that picture!
 
We were on a summer vacation, and drove from Ohio to visit my dad's sister and family, in NYC. My dad had a grocery store, and some company came thru with the tickets. Probably Colgate!!
 

[Jill]

        "It's Fantastic How Inventive Kiva Addicts Can Be
   in coming up with ways to stay camped out at the Kiva website, even when there's a lull in new Entrepreneur postings.
I seem able to come up with new ones every day......."

      I started this thread with those words.
Guess what! 
I just came up with another one.

("Necessity is the Mother of Invention"
or something like that....).

     Because I'm trying to refrain from Lending for a couple more days
in deference to the Newbies.... and wanting them to have their "First Loan" experience,
in suffering withdrawal pangs,
I had to come up with something.

    I was just hanging out over at the Best Smiles Thread,
http://www.kivafriends.org/index.php/topic,515.100.html

and was struck with the inspiration that we need to have a Best Smiles Kiva Calendar,
and it occurred to me, just now,
that one way to hang out, almost forever, at the Kiva website,
for those who just can't bear being away, even for a minute,
would be to go trolling through the various Lender pages
(through your so-called megalenders and through any and all others, as well),
looking for more "Best Smiles"
both for the purpose of adding to our wonderful thread, here,
and prospectively, hopefully,
for adding to the choices of Our (I'm hoping, hoping, hoping) Kiva Entrepreneurs Best Smiles Calendar-to-Be!

[Ulli]

        go trolling through the various Lender pages ....

Hi Jill, looking at lender pages is one of my favorite things to do. It is fascinating to see what people do for a living or why they lend. One time I found a soon-to-be nun. She was still allowed to have money and she spend it on Kiva before she took her oath. This morning I saw a couple and they simply said that they build airplanes. And I get curious and want to know more. Or look at all the kids who lend money. Just found two grade school students and they had one loan. I guess $25 is a huge amount for a kid to save from their allowance.

Ulli
 

[Jill]

      Am back for just a minute til mid-evening, tonight, but....

   ABOUT THE CALENDAR:
          One way to Stay On Kiva Website Without (Hardly) Ever Leaving,
and, at the same time,
to be doing something that might be ultimately helpful
for our Maybe-To-Be-Maybe-Not-To-Be Calendar,

is to Go to the Kiva General Lend Page,
Set it on "ALL", instead of on "In Need,"
Type the Name of Some Country or Another in the Search Space,
and then Treasure Hunt,
Through All the Old Pictures Of "Old" Entrepreneurs for That One Particular Country,
Looking for
and POSTING
All the Really Great Pictures for Each Country You Check Out
in the Best Smiles Thread and/or
In Case Best Smiles Does Not Win as the Selected Calendar Theme in The Poll, Sometime, To Take Place,
By Posting the Other Great Pictures From that Country
in the Other Entrepreneurs' Photos thread.

      It will allow you to hang out at Kiva for as long as you choose,
(depending on how many separate country's listings you troll),
and,
it would be really helpful.

     Please, Please, Someone Who Knows How
HELP GET A POLL GOING ABOUT BEST SMILES THEME FOR CALENDAR -- YES OR NO?

[Dottie b]

           Please, Please, Someone Who Knows How
HELP GET A POLL GOING ABOUT BEST SMILES THEME FOR CALENDAR -- YES OR NO?

Instead of YES or NO, could we pleaes list alternatives, like:

     Great Smiles

     Great Photos of Great People

     Shirtless Men


Dottie B

[Dottie b]

I think Jill and I posted on the wrong thread. 

Dottie B

[funkywhuff]

Hi guys,

Yes, just staying around (as per the title of the thread) myself reading some different threads,

and I did just want to clarify being from Australia myself that:

Yes, it definitely is a wombat in the picture!

They are not generally that cuddly and found mostly in the bush so the way he is holding it (i.e. with claws away from him) is a good idea (to avoid any nasty scratches..!!)

Our cute and cuddly wildlife don't seem to understand that they could behave like soft cuddly toys and instead generally prefer to behave like ... animals!   

Cheers,
Liz

[Jill]

TO EXPLAIN THE NEW PICTURE THREADS BEING STARTED/POSTED THIS WEEKEND:

       I started this thread noting how there are a near-infinite number of strategies
(strategems/machinations? ) for staying/lollygagging around the Kiva and KivaFriends websites
for those who just can't bear or bring themselves to leave.

       In addition to the Strategies of

-- Dreaming Up New Strategies for Hanging Around
      (out of the kindness of your heart and only, of course, and
      out of consideration for the addictions of your Kiva Friends,
      not for yourself, of course, because you don't have an addiction) and

-- Originating New Threads for Discussion and/or for Picture-Posting

I'd like to suggest that you can stay, almost forever, on the Kiva website,

-- Fishing, Trolling, Mining, Treasure-Hunting for Pictures and
    for "Irresistible" Stories.
         
        You can justify your doing this as being
-- for "The Public Good,"

-- for Kiva and for all the people it touches and someday may touch,

-- for perhaps including in the next Calendar and/or other promotional media
we can dream up to help spread the Kiva word and the Kiva hope, and

-- to give teachers and parents and other caring people a head start in their efforts to use the Kiva website
as a means for showing kids (and others?)
our interconnectedness and our similarities with people all around the world.

       
          I've been working on a number of threads for the last couple of weeks which I am introducing this weekend;
 this, to explain the sudden proliferation of new threads that perhaps greeted you when you just now came to Kiva Friends.
     
       I will elaborate a bit on those new threads in a post or two that will follow,
so you won't have to read too many words at one time.
I already exceeded your limit?!!   
Hmmm-m, you know what the  frog said.