There Really Are A Lot Of People Out There….

Individuals

Driving down the freeway today I looked over to the individual driving the Geo Prism to my right and thought, “where the hell is she going?” Keeping my eyes on the road (don’t worry, Mom) I looked ahead. As I stared out the windshield I surveryed the cars whizzing past me. (but not even close to speed of the kid from yesterday). As I stared at the plethora of cars and people passing me there was only one thought that came to my head. THERE ARE SO MANY OF US!

And we are all so much more connected than we realize.

Why? One word: Google.

Google has made the six degrees of seperation almost plummet down to one degree. Through Google we are connected as one.

Speaking of six degrees, at the Sundance Film Festival this past January I had a run in with Kevin Bacon. I was standing there at the hotel valet waiting for the shuttle to take me to town at a very early hour. As I stood there shivering in the Park City wind, out of nowhere Kevin Bacon appeared. Right next to me. There he was. Just KB and I.

“Hello, Kevin….How’s your band the Bacon Brothers doing?” Nicely played! Smooth one, Lis!

Yeah, that would have been solid if that is what I said.

Instead the only thing running through my mind was “Six Degrees…Six Degrees….Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.”

There I was, the first degree – at that moment in time, I was it. It felt like I had entered into this euphoric state of SDOKB and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. As I stood there I thought about all those kids on the east coast college campuses who were just rolling out of bed, meandering into the dining halls to have three bowls of Captain Crunch too many and about to begin the morning game of SDOKB. There they were racking their brains to get the closest degree…and I was it. The only person at that point in his life that was the closest to him. Not gonna lie: It was a moment for me.

But did I say anything to KB? No. Tongue tied.

I still had that six degrees bug in my mind. Yes, we smiled at one another. There was that moment of “we both get it” because he looked like he had been out all night long and so did I. (Which I was.) It was just too early to talk. At least that was my excuse.

More info on the SDOKB game: http://www.louisville.com/loumag/mar/bacon.htm

SDOKB

Sidenote: I recently saw the ending of Footloose…if you haven’t seen that in awhile or God forbid you have never seen the movie at all: Rent it. If you have only a 15 minute window fast forward to the end. It will change your life.

kb

Now go Google away.