Tag: Six Degrees of Separation

Bullies and Burdens: Six Links of Separation

Posted on by Kimberly Savage in Charity, Equality, Inspiring, Six Degrees, Women, Writing

The more I write this blog, the more surprised I am at how many times random ideas, links, people, and events connect and come around, full circle – like the film Six Degrees of Separation and the parlour game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, and Kevin Bacon’s charity SixDegrees.org

Here is my latest “six links of separation” story from my last blog:

1. Visiting my husband at his work, I saw a clipped article from 5280 Magazine taped to the desk of one of his co-workers and, after reading it, it stuck with me (not literally – I left it taped to the desk).

2. When I started writing a blog, I remembered the article and thought I could write a post about it, so I got an emailed copy of the clipped article – no headline or byline – and put it aside.

3. In the meantime, I wanted to write a post featuring a clip from the film Amelie, in which the main character receives advice on sassy comebacks from a man whispering through a basement window, but I couldn’t find that particular clip on YouTube. Instead…

4. I found “Young Amelie Gets Her Revenge” which was even better (go back one blog and watch it again!). Then I remembered the article. I pulled up my email, loved the quote all over again, so I went to the 5280’s website and searched for “gas lighting”.

5. The whole article appeared, and I could reference it properly. To my surprise, I recognized the author: Laura Pritchett is not only an award-winning author, 5280 columnist, editor, & parent, she is also a University of Denver professor, and she taught one of my creative writing classes when I got my Masters. I remember her because she was creative and kind and generous – wonderful attributes in anybody but particularly appreciated in creative writing instructors.

6. I made a donation to SixDegrees.org  – an homage to the connections and coincidences that make this large world seem slighter smaller and more familiar.

 

SixDegrees.org – a Blog Promise

Posted on by Kimberly Savage in Advocacy, Charity, Equality, Inspiring, Karma, Six Degrees, Women, Writing

Here’s my pledge, with the web as my witness: everytime I post about Six Links of Separation, I’m going to go to SixDegrees.org and donate to a charity.

The website makes it extremely easy to donate. Here’s what I did:

1. I clicked “Donate”

2. I entered “writing” as a keyword (optional)

3. And I had 7 pages of charitable organizations to choose from!

I picked Afghan Women’s Writing Project, Inc. because I’d read about this organization and I’d been meaning to donate.  Now, I have a karma buzz.

4. You can donate using a credit card or PayPal or these things called Good Cards.

Please consider stopping by SixDegrees.org and donating to the charity of your choice. You will enjoy the karma that follows!

Secret Worlds Part 4: Six Links of Separation

Posted on by Kimberly Savage in Charity, Inspiring, Quotes, Secret Worlds, Six Degrees, Transformation

Like the film Six Degrees of Separation and the parlour game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, sometimes even writing a blog can be a journey that comes full circle:

1. Starting with my own blog, I wanted a quote from an author about writing about characters.

2. My search led me to Goodreads, where I found a lot of good quotes, including this one that I didn’t use: “By the end, you should be inside your character, actually operating from within somebody else, and knowing him pretty well, as that person knows himself or herself. You’re sort of a predator, an invader of people.”
― William Trevor

3. The quote I did use, from John Rogers, led me to his website and blog. Since I’m a fan of TNT’s show Leverage (Mr. Rogers is a writer and exec producer for the show), I read his blog, “Leverage #509 “The Rundown Job” post-game“,  in which he writes about a scene inspired by his friend who’d recently died, which was moving and not at all maudlin.

4. Reading his recommended list of blogs, I checked out Jon Swift’s blog. The last post here was from March 19, 2009, but it had a link I could not ignore, so I followed it…

5. To Chuck Butcher’s blog, and his post about his son, Nicholas Andrew Butcher’s, suicide. Already moved by John Rogers’ blog, Chuck’s honest, tragic account brought me to tears.

6. I noticed Chuck’s “About Me” sidebar, in which he wrote: “If you think you’ve figured a niche for me, you’ve no clue.” At first, this struck me as ironic because, for the past 3 blogs, I’ve been writing about figuring people out, striving for understanding, walking in each other’s shoes, etc. And here Chuck is telling me I’ll never succeed. But then I realized that wasn’t his message – like most of us, he doesn’t want to be labeled, pigeon-holed, or limited – which is a lovely and fitting post-script to this Secret World series. Strive for understanding of your fellow human beings but, please, no niche-ing.

6.5 Bonus Discovery: Kevin Bacon took the silly parlour game with his name on it and created something worthwhile – a charitable initiative: SixDegrees.org – check it out!