Connections - It's A Small World

"Pay attention. It's all about paying attention. It connects you with others." (Susan Sontag)

I don't know what it is about realizing those "it's a small world" connections that delights me so, but they do. I've written about some of them before - the young woman who was doing the year end audit of the books where I worked in Des Moines and after visiting awhile discovering that her mother was a former classmate.

Or the time we stopped for an ice cream cone on our way to Oregon to visit my daughter and heard someone blasting my stepson's CD, and Bud telling him that was his son he was listening to which resulted in an amusing small world story stretching from coast to coast.

I almost missed a connection yesterday because I wasn't paying attention. I had the radio on low in the background while I was on the computer. I usually listen to the station in Murray because it plays such a variety of music. There was a catchy, country folk song that I didn't recognize, but I finally caught the words, "black Iowa dirt" in the refrain and that did get my attention.

Hmm, I wonder who is singing a country folk song about Iowa? So I Googled "Black Iowa Dirt lyrics" and got several returns. I read a nice article about the song's writer, singer, guitar player - a farmer in Southeast Iowa - before going back to read another of the returns that caught my eye...

...caught my eye because it mentioned a name I recognized - the moniker of one of my stepson's fellow performers. When I read that link, it mentioned one of his songs on which the Black Iowa Dirt singer had sung the refrain from his own song.

I messaged my stepson to tell him about it and ask if he knew the B-I-D singer. He replied that indeed he did know him and that all three were longtime friends from their Iowa City days. 

Six degrees of separation has become the norm for explaining how we are all just six, or fewer, social connections away from one another. Maybe that's why I am so enchanted with making connections - realizing the thrill, having the fun, of chasing down a lead; paying attention and being inquisitive. 😊