"6 degrees of Seperation" & "The Butterfly Effect"

A few days ago I was watching a Kevin Bacon movie and saw a commercial that featured the lawyer the movie "A Few Good Men" was based on. I smiled and thought "6 degrees of Kevin Bacon". You see a few years back my #1 son was a stage hand in the community theater production of “A Few Good Men”. The lawyer Mr. Don Marcari who the movie was based on was there to answer questions and that is how I met him. He answered a few of my questions. When you apply the 6 degrees of separation rule it could be said that because I met Mr. Marcari I am 2 degrees away from everyone he comes in contact with. I think it’s safe to assume he has met Mr. Tom Cruse so I am 2 degrees away from Tom Cruse and 3degrees away from everyone he comes in contact with. Its amazing to me how interconnected we humans are.

For the past few days I had been avoiding the news because I knew that the media would be capitalizing on the Virginia Tec tragedy and I just did not want to feed into it. While driving yesterday I did turn my radio on and was pleasantly surprised to find that NPR was tactfully interviewing people who knew the victims. They related stories of a wide variety of good people. One woman from Floyd Va told of a music student she knew. While I was listening to her I realized that I know a person who works at VA Tec. in the engineering department and my stomach sank. The person I know is fine but again look how intertwined we are. A woman from Floyd; were I’m going to be moving is on the radio and someone I know works at the school where this terrible thing had happened. It is a small world.

What this post is trying to convey is that we are all connected in some way to everyone else. If we accept this then maybe we can influence those around us. I have introduced “6 degrees of separation” now let me introduce “the butterfly effect”. Every action no matter how small has an effect on the whole. An example of this is that if a butterfly flaps its wings in Africa, this causes the air to move, this movement of air builds into a thunder storm, that storm goes off the coast of Africa into the Atlantic and forms into a hurricane ect. ect. If we perform one kindness to another, open the door for someone, give a stranger a quarter when there short, let someone pass us on the road, just a little kindness then maybe they will pass this kindness on. There is no guarantee that the receiver of the kindness will pass it on but the stranger who did not need your help but saw you help someone else might be inspired to pass on a kindness of his own and maybe by that kindness someone will be touched and rethink an action that could have lead to a horrendous act.