Saturday, 19 March 2022

pancakes

 


How do we make friends?
Kurtis Kimball is 43 years old and lives in San Francisco, USA. After coming out of lockdown this year, he realised, "I just don't know how grown ups make friends!".

Kurtis decided he would take action to solve his problem. He decided to hold a pancake party and invite his neighbours. Kurtis thought it might go wrong, but it was worth the risk; "I don't mind looking foolish, so I was like, I bet I could just put myself out there and maybe something would happen."

" I had this ridiculous, silly, simple idea; I could make my neighbourhood a better place AND make some new friends just by making pancakes in the front of my house for anyone who came by to hang out."

Kurtis says, "Everyone in my life thought I was insane. It's a pretty vulnerable feeling to do something that outlandish in public."

"Even if you don't like to eat pancakes, you just like the idea of them. Being around pancakes feels good even if you don't like eating them yourself. Also, if you someone making pancakes for strangers, you'd probably think that person is nice."

Kurtis put flyers up around his neighbourhood; "My wife says I need to make friends. So I'm making pancakes. Come by and say hi and have some pancakes with me."

Kurtis says he thought no one would turn up, but on 100 people came! He did another date three weeks later and 300 people came!

Kurtis later said that although the pancakes were a great success, he thought people weren't really coning for the pancakes; they came for the feeling of togetherness. "It was really refreshing to see people smiling and enjoying themselves. We've got to celebrate each other as people a lot more."

- What do you see in the picture? What is happening?
- how do you make friends? Is it always easy? Why not? What advice would you give to Kurtis?
- Do you think it's harder for grown ups?
- why do grown ups want to make friends?
- why do you think Kurtis chose to make pancakes and not cakes or sausage rolls?
-"I don't mind looking foolish," why did Kurtis think he may look foolish? why are some people scared of looking foolish? What does vulnerable mean?
- " put my self out there" what does that mean? Is that hard to do? Why?
- how would this make the neighbourhood a better place?
- Kurtis thought no-one would show up but 100 people came - what does that show about people today?
- Kurtis thinks they weren't really coming for the pancakes, what do you think?
- why were there 3x that number next time?
- what does community cohesion mean?
- what can we learn from Kurtis?
- why is this about No Outsiders?


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