I don’t know how many miles span the Earth, nor do I know how many people call it home, but I do know that this planet is getting smaller by the day.
Social networking sites connect us around the world in ways we never thought possible, and we are in touch with more people than we could have dreamed of, say, 10 years ago. Last spring, I got together with a college roommate who was in town on business, and it felt like we really did know each other, even though it had been more than 20 years since our last encounter. We did not even bring the once-essential picture album – we had already reviewed all the pictures. I love the connections, and the mass transit of information.
I also know that the non-techno aspect of our world is shrinking in a very fascinating way. Today, I had lunch with people in my neighborhood. One person mused that everyone who crosses our paths, does so for a purpose. Think of the people we run into on a daily basis who turn out to be just the people we needed to see, for very specific reason. Are these coincidences or cosmic clashes?
More than three years ago, when I first arrived in Shanghai and knew virtually no one, I attended an American Women’s social function. This was a casual occasion and I wore a long sleeved tee shirt with a small Red Cross symbol, and in tiny letters, Williamson County written around the bottom of the circle. In a loud room, a woman leaned into the long table, about six crowded chairs down from me and asked across the din if my shirt referred to Williamson County, Tennessee.
It did, I replied, and she went on to tell me she once lived in Brentwood. I made a little joke about hailing from across the tracks in nearby Franklin and went about the business of meeting the people around me. At the end of the evening, the lady from across the table came over and introduced herself to me and told me had taught seventh grade English at Page Middle School in Franklin.
I recognized her name immediately as a favorite teacher of both Elise and Nicholas at Page Middle. We became friends immediately, and she even got to meet her former students while they visited China.
At lunch today, I shared this story of the social coincidences in our world, and another person shared a story about looking for a place to see a beautiful sunset across a Great Lake in northern Michigan. The family searched for the perfect spot to enjoy the colorful end of the day ritual, and they found a bench situated perfectly to see the sunset. As they sat and watched nature’s palette, an elderly gentleman came and told them about “his” bench. He told the family that he built the bench perfectly situated to watch the beautiful sunsets, as he wanted visitors to enjoy sunsets as much as he does.
The little girl of this family went back to her home in Troy, MI and told her teacher about this special grandpa. Her teacher actually knew the daughter of this kind man, and the family had even written a book about their dad’s special bench that he built to allow people a comfortable place to watch sun’s disappearance on the water’s horizon every evening.
Stories abound of people running into someone who knows someone who knows something in common. We do live in a small, small world. I reflect on the many people I have met along my way who have affected me so deeply. Some are those unique coincidences that make us ponder, and others serve as the happenstance of kindness that give my heart a lift in my world where I far too often find myself as the new kid on the block. As I walked through the local gym recently, my thoughts deliberately rested on my lament of how much I miss the familiar faces of the people back home. As I was lost in this thought, I felt a tap on my arm, and it was a neighbor I had only met once who wanted to say hello.
Yes, everyone passes through our lives for a reason, and each encounter, no matter how small, can make a difference. Let me know about your casual brushes that turn into more than a coincidence.
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