Six degrees...

By now everyone around the world has heard about the massacre at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg VA. Big questions will always remain about why this happened, how it could be prevented, and which entity is culpable for what are arguably missteps by authorities all around.

But it took on a more personal note for me when I realized a co-worker had a daughter attending the university. Upon checking with the person last night, I found out to my great relief that their daughter was fine; but that she was the roommate of one of the students murdered.

That really set my mind back.

I remember similar fears: when I was in Paris attending classes in the 90's a subway bombing happened in a train at the stop by our residence. I remember us all counting our classmates, trying mobiles to locate the missing folks. Were any on that train? I remember when the last group of students came rushing in. How we all started hugging each other crying tears of relief - males & females. You just couldn't help it. Turns out this last group had been on the doomed train but had gotten off the stop before and were still on the platform when it exploded shortly down the tunnel.

The memories this event stirred up made me realize how much we are all connected and sometimes by a very short social distance. It's that "six degrees of separation" theory made real. Like between me and the happenings at Virginia Tech? 3 degrees of separation. Myself and a victim of the WTC on 9/11? 2 degrees. Me and a victim of the OK City bombing? 3 degrees.

But I have more delightful associations too: Between me and a participant in the 1963 March on Washington where Martin Luther King delivered his "I Have A Dream" speech? 1 degree. And between me and a person who held one of the balloon floats in the 2006 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in NYC? 2 degrees.

Which just goes to show that for good or ill, we are all in this together.

- Farmer Ted