The idea of 6 degrees of separation has become a popular past time. The idea of course is that no 2 people are more than 6 degrees separate from each other. This means that you are only 6 relationships removed from anybody else on earth.
In preparing a talk on relationships for our youth group I discovered we are 4 degrees from the spiritual advisor to the president of the United States, we are 3 degrees from the keys to the garden tomb, we are related to famous bands, musicians etc..
Statistically it could be true. If you want to join the human experiment you can join related games like.....facebook- a social network that allows members to compare friends. Facebook also has a 6 degrees application where you can join a social experiment linking all humankind. One of my favorites is the Kevin Bacon Experiment which seeks to link all actors to Kevin.
HERE is the crazy thing! Despite being so close to such huge fame, to massive influencer's, to have such imaginative tools like facebook- we are still miles and miles apart. Where does being 6 degrees from each other really get us??
Despite only being 6 relationships from an orphan dying of aids, 5 from the dollars that could save them, 4 from people who could minister justice, 3 from local injustice, 2 from local politicians, 1 from myself the first source of the problem. I realize I am a barrier creating separation. Campaigns like make poverty history, and others make me realize despite being so close, we are so disconnected. Our actions still so impact the world through the things we buy, the way we live.
The potential to make such a huge difference. The power of becoming influencer's so near our finger tips.....How do we turn this around? How do we use our 6 degrees to influence the world?? It could be that the whole 6 degrees of separation, discussions of small world concepts, the movement towards carbon neutral living, may all just highlight one thing- the weight of sin and selfishness and it's ability to thwart justice.
1 comment:
I was ACTUALLY trying to find some other guy's work... so I googled the name that inaccurately stuck in my head, 'Rob Hall' (likely as a result of Into Thin Air)... and a few other key words- mainly vague stabs in the dark. I ended up reading thru your work- which I found interesting; with a feel to what I THOUGHT this other guy;s ideas would be like.
I read thru the entry on 6 Degrees, a fun and, as you astutely point out, a relevant social activism/reflective point of inquiry.
As Malcolm Gladwell shares- it is actually Rod Steiger who trumps Kevin Bacon in a BIG way in the connectedness game in Hollywood. Since I am slightly too young to really appreciate Rod Steiger- he had to be pointed out to me while I was bussing his table at one time Malibu hotspot, Alice's Restaurant, in 1991. While I was cleaning up after him on table 4...the circular 5-top with the prime view of Surfrider Beach's famous Malibu longboarding point break, I removed Mr Steiger's appetizer plate to clear the way for the main course. As per tradition in the Alice's Restaurant table busser's game- ... I finished the rest of his Lumpia Crab Cakes, then added it to the list: "Famous people we have scavanged food from in hopes that some day we can make the Letterman show" The List was LONG... included some KEY scores like Mel Gibson's shrimp cocktail, Kelsey Grammer's french fries, Annette Funicello's spring rolls- which was a BIG bonus as she played Gidget (in the movie- but not on TV show, that was Sally Fields-) therefore WHAT a geographic coming together of people/place, right? Malibu, Gidget, Alice's. (My all-time low point in the game was finishing off the dregs of Steve Perry's cappuccino. He ate all of his cesar's salad, ripped thru the Chilean Sea Bass, and took no prisoners with his tiramisu. Out of desperation, what could I do? As I watched him carefully use the fresh sourdough bread to clean up the dressing and sauces, I kept imaging David Letterman asking me, "So, as 6th grader, Journey's epic hit Dont Stop Believin' probably had a large impact on your late elementary school experience.. Were you ever lucky enough to scavange something from the plate of your childhood rock idol?" There is NO way I would want to let Dave down like that. So I finished off the greasy sludge without a regret in the world.
So after reading thru the 6 Degrees ideas, I daydreamed a bit about your ideas relating to travel and pilgrimage and got to thinking about my college friend and traveling companion Mike Howerton who wrote the book Miles To Cross: A Spiritual Journey On The Open Road. A few of the stories relate a motorcycle trip in which he, I and another friend, Toph, drove for 7 weeks thru north america. We all loved the Beat poets, and as a testament to this- in the book, Mike gives me the pseudonym 'Dean'... right, Dean Moriarty- which is Neal Cassady's moniker. So we got in adventures- the three of us biking thru Strugis, South Dakota, in the middle of the Harley rally (we didnt even know it existed, camping in the Ozarks, crusing blue highways creating western haikus to share during gasoline breaks, often times talking about how much more fun it was to spend the summer riding across the US of A than to be back bussing tables at Alice's. The restaurant and The List would still be there for us when we returned for our senior year of college. Back to Mike Howeton, he, in fact, is a young adult pastor in southern California and connects well with the "restless seeker" types in the teen, early twenty age bracket. I have lost touch with him in the past 7-8 years, but we still share Toph as a common close friend.
As I unintentionally scrolled down the page to the bottom of your blog- I saw the section listing 4 or 5 links or extras or something or other at the end of the page... and then noticed the name 'Rob Bell' and the location 'Grand Rapids'. Call it what you want... Google conspiracy, 2 Degrees of Separation, coincidence, luck, random happenstance, but I would attribute it directly to Vonnegutian Bokonon philosophy. (Perhaps you are in my karass, IF you dont read Vonnegut, I suggest you begin soon... though I havent thought of him or of Bokonon in at least 10 years. But see- THAT's how it works!)
So thanks for subtly, gently and patiently directing my to Rob Bell's website. A new friend of mine attends his talks quite often and told me today that I could download some podcasts... Which was my intention when I logged on over an hour ago.
I look forward to clicking the bookmark and reading more of your thoughts. As an outdoor educator who lives for serendipitous occasions and a subscriber to the belief that things happen at the right time when lessons are placed there just when we need them- I, personally, have enjoyed sharing this story with you.
Be well,
Mike
www.isdsi.org
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