Three degrees of Baha'i seperation.

So I watched the movie Six Degrees of Seperation the other night. And while the movie was certainly interesting, I didn't think they really explored the whole six degrees* thing very deeply. I mean, if everyone in the entire world really is connected by less than six people, why marvel at the fact that you're so connected to someone who lives in the same city as you? lame.
But it got me thinking about connections. About the people I know. And especially about the Baha'is that I know.
Granted, it's much easier to be connected to a lot of people from all corners of the globe when you're working in the centre of the Baha'i world. But I'm still constantly amazed at the number of people I meet here who I have friends in common with. Even more surreal is it seems that I have just as good a chance of having a friend in common with someone from Africa or Asia (or Eurpoe or South America or Australia) as someone from North America. Just the other day I met a guy whose parents and sister I met in Bangkok last year. Before that it was a young woman from Los Angeles whose friends I had met in South Afirca. And before that a guy whose mother I had met in a tiny village in rural Malawi.
Sure, it helps that I have been able to travel a lot. It also helps that the worldwide Baha'i community is only 6 million and not 6 billion.
But it sure makes the world feel like a much smaller place.



* The title of the movie comes from the idea that all people in the world are connected by only six other people. So it means that you are connected to everyone else on earth though the friends of your friends of your friends of your friends of your friends of your friends of your friends. or something like that.