How close are you to the Queen of the Netherlands? Or the current President of the US? Now I don’t mean when you last had coffee with them, because we all know that’s only for you and them to know, but I mean do you know anyone who knows them? Or maybe you know someone who knows someone who knows them? According to idea of six degrees of separation, there are actually only six people between you and them. In fact, there are only six people, or degrees, between you and every other person on earth. Interesting concept isn’t it? To think that you are six people away from famous people like Meryl Streep, or Joan Collins. I’ve been doing the math, and have begun to realize that perhaps this idea isn’t as ludicrous as it sounds.
Let’s take Joan Collins for instance. One of my friends from college is now a screenwriter in Hollywood, and worked on a show for Nickelodeon that starred Blair Underwood. He, in turn, acted alongside Heather Locklear in the show “LAX”, and Heather Locklear and Joan Collins worked together on the 1980s soap hit “Dynasty". That meanst that Joan Collins is four degrees away from me, and thus five degrees away from you, the reader. Right, you may think, but that’s just because you happened to get a degree in a college that also produced a lot of screenwriters. You have a point there. And I’m almost as reasonable as the next gal, so let’s take someone a little further out of our reach. Let’s take Beatrix, the Queen of the Netherlands. Alright. We discovered that the person who managed the location where we got married also organized a large part of Maxima and Prince Willem Alexander’s wedding. Willem Alexander is Beatrix’s son, so that puts her three degrees away from me. Isn’t that a cool thought? I also calculated that I am merely one degree away from former President Clinton (thanks to husband-dear), and thus two degrees from all the people he met. So who all do you know?
What got me started on this somewhat odd and definitely irrelevant theory is the fact that today I had lunch with my oldest friend. She and I met in 7th grade, when we were both 12 years old, living in France, and attending an American school. Although we both proceeded to spend most of the next six years moving to various locations, we somehow matriculated at the same university in Texas within a year of each other. She then moved to London, and presumably out of sight. Yet within two years of her moving to the UK, I started a research project in collaboration with, yes, a university in England. Then when she moved to Atlanta, we figured we’d had run out of luck. Yet as you all know, as of last year, we now live only several hours driving from one another. It’s things like this that have me convinced that it is a small world, and that even if, like myself and many others, you spend most of your life moving around, you will always somehow end up meeting someone who knew you, or your brother, or your best friend. So even though I’ve always lamented not growing up in a small village like so many others, in a way I have just created my own, portable, little hamlet. And that's a very nice thought.
And yes, my friend is moving to Boston. However, I am now absolutely convinced that we will somehow end up there sometime too. History speaks for itself.
2 comments:
Hm, I don't know. I have heard of this theory before, but in the 7th degree. I can see this for famous Europeans or Americans, but how about the African woman somewhere in the middle of the Sudan? How can I know her in the sixth or seventh degree? There are billions of people in the world and I don't see how. Even if I have met Bill Gates and he and his wife Melinda are doing a lot in Afrika, they still can't personally know everyone they're helping there.
Yep, I've heard of the theory. And according to that theory I am also connected to a lot of (influential) people... *ahem*
My wife's grandfather was roommates (and is still good friends) with George Bush Sr., and because of that, my mother-in-law as a kid used to play at the Bush place a lot with little Georgie W., and they're still in touch every once in a while.
On the other side of my wife's family, my father-in-law's brother used to be in the same wrestling team as John McCain in college.
So they're only a few degrees away. A shame they're all Republican... ;-)
It still is an interesting theory, even though it's not about knowing knowing, but how we're all connected - it's just fun to think about...
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