6 Degrees of Separation

You've probably heard of the game The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon... How you can link Kevin Bacon in six degrees of separation to any other actor... Well I was reading somewhere recently (someplace reliable, but I don't remember where) that there is research that proves that we are truly that closely interrelated - but not just to other actors like in the game, but to any other person on the planet. It's actually 6.5 degrees of separation between you and any other person on the planet.

If that doesn't make you say, "Wow!" I don't know what would. It's pretty amazing to think that you know someone who knows someone, who knows someone... well you get the point. It's not very far from any one of us to any other. So I guess, if you want to meet someone, you should just make it known that you want to meet them. Chances are you do know someone who knows someone- and probably in fewer degrees of separation than six. Hmmmm....

In The Shack, Sarayu (the Holy Spirit) talks about patterns - she calls them fractals. She tells Mack, the protagonist that she loves fractals. Mack is looking at a garden (which turns out to be a symbol for himself) and he sees a mess. Sarayu takes it as a great compliment. Then he begins to perceive patterns. She tells him that they're fractals. Fractals are self-similar structures whose geometrical and topographical features are recapitulated in miniature on finer and finer scales. It's a fancy, mathematical term for a pattern. Sarayu tells Mack at some point in the book that lives look like that - like fractals. She meant individual lives, but I wonder about patterns as they relate to our interconnectedness.

We're so individualistic in this country. We think that we live our lives in relative isolation and that our concerns are our concerns. But that's really not true. Whether it's your neighbor next door or across town or across the world, we are connected. Jesus asked who's your neighbor? When we understand how closely (by degrees) we are interrelated to everyone, we understand clearly that every other person is our neighbor.

So... Hello Neighbor! Maybe one day we'll meet. For sure I know someone, who knows someone, who knows someone who knows you.