I had a very interesting experience recently on Facebook. Facebook has this feature where I can find people who are friends with two or more of my friends. The thinking is that if there is someone who knows a collection of my friends, then probably I know that person too. This theory falls short when it comes to family members, but as far as friends, it has been very helpful in finding them from different kinds of connections.

So a few months ago, a person was recommended to me (by Facebook) who connected with two friends of mine. ow the interesting thing about this connection, once removed, was that these two people that were connected to this person were fron two very very different eras of my life and two ery different geographical locations.

The two friends this guy was connected to were Jennifer Yost and Zac Normandin.

This may not seem very interesting to you, but allow me to explain. I grew up with Jennifer in Fremont, Ohio (pop. 16,000) Our parents worked together and the Yosts went to our church.
Jennifer was a few years younger than me, but we always got along and were friends. She was closer to my sister Amie than me however. We basically knew each other from 1985 – 1993. From what I can gather, Jennifer now lives somewhere in the midwest between Detroit and Chicago.

Fast forward 10 years. I had moved to Massachusetts and was working at the church I’m currently at, and then I took a job part time teaching at a Christian school up here. Zac Normandin was one of my students. He now lives in Manchester, New Hampshire with his wife.

So the person who connects them lives in Tampa, Florida and when I asked him via Facebook message how he knows them both, he simply said that a mutual friend connectd them all. Fascinating.
All this to say that the world is getting smaller, and I love every minute of it.

In honor of this, let’s play a game. I’m going to pick 10 people randomly on my facebook account, and I’d like to see how many of them you know.

Alicia Walton Parsons
Rachel O Connor
Edward paek
Steven MacArthur
Mark Salyer
Chris Destratis
Karla Bell Totten
Dee Dee Huey
Amy Lula
Steve Francis

Ready…Go!

Sometime in 2005 I took a test to find out what my strengths were.  I found that my top 5 were as follows: 1.  Ideator, 2.  Positivity, 3.  Connectedness, 4.  Competition, 5.  Developer

I noticed as several of my friends took the same test that several of us had one of those in common.  Out of the 7 people I know that took the test, 5 of them had connectedness as a strength.
Some qualitites of someone with this strength – “That I gain confidence from knowing that we are not isolated from one another or from the earth and the life on it;  I am part of a larger picture, and I must not harm others because I will harm myself;  and I am a bridge builder between people of different cultures.”

Enter the beauty of web 2.0 to people like me. 
I’m not a fan of compartmentalizing my life.  I like things, whether it’s people in my life or web sites I go to, to all be connected to one another.  This makes my mom and google both very happy.

How does this affect me?
I like it when my family and my friends and all the people in my life meet.  What makes this interesting is when they don’t get along.  I think everyone should get along.  Not like each other, just get along.

I like using google and itunes.  My friend Clay swears against itunes, and probably rightfully so, but I like when things connect together easily, so I use it.  I know, I know Clay, I sacrifice things to use itunes.  Google connects a lot of things in my web life, like my Calendar, my way to find where I might be going, my blog reader, my connect with Fellowship Church podcasts, and even my weather, not to mention my documents (I don’t have to pay for Microsoft office again!)

Weather

Holden, MA

58°F
Cloudy
Wind: N at 0 mph
Humidity: 84%

Today

74° | 54
Fri

74° | 58°

Sat

79° | 61°

Sun

76° | 61°

I like learning from anything or anyone.  Whether it’s a great pastor, a marketing expert,
or a book that gets me thinking.  This is probably why I fare better in New England than I
might have in the midwest.

I don’t like to keep people that are an important part of my life apart from each other. 

I think that there is a terrific connection between Don Miller’s “Blue like Jazz”, Vince Antonucci’s
“I became a Christian and all I got was this lousy T-shirt“, and Gregg Easterbrook’s “The
Progress Paradox”

What can I say, I like being connected.  Do you?

This has been a cultural post with Randy Elrod’s Watercooler Wednesday in mind.