I have written before on the ‘small world’ phenomena (related to ‘Six Degrees of Separation’ also known as ‘Bacon’s Law’), in fact a couple of times, including some unqualified statistical analysis. This seems to happen to us on a fairly regular basis, and others have told me similar stories.
The episode this last week was pretty amazing, even for us. It started when a friend in town asked if we wanted to kayak Sparks Lake with her and her young son. We had actually kayaked on Sparks Lake the day before, but said “Sure!”. So we go to Sparks Lake and paddle around. On the way back, her son catches a giant frog, which he proudly shows off to three people lounging in the water near their paddleboards, before releasing the frog.
Since we had been kayaking the day before, instead of my usual blue sun shirt, I had grabbed a drab tan one that has “Gossamer Gear” embroidered on it. We’re back at the boat ramp, getting our kayaks out, and splashing around some in the water, when the three people we had passed on the way in paddled in for the day. It was a young couple and a guy roughly my age. He walks by, notices my shirt, and remarks “Gossamer Gear!” I asked “Oh, are you familiar with Gossamer Gear?” He replies yes, and asks “Do you know the guy who started it?”. I said “I am the guy who started it.” He told me that his name was Glen also, and he had come to hear me speak last year at REI. Glen introduces us to his friends Ethan and Jacqueline, who are out from South Carolina. It turns out they had come to Bend for Jacqueline to run a 50-mile race the DAY BEFORE (she seemed very nonchalant about it, and was suffering no apparent ill effects from having spent most of the previous day running).
Now, several months ago, Christian at Matrix Integrated, where our Sprinter van Wally gets serviced, had mentioned he was running a 25k race at Mt. Hood, and wondered if Wally was available, because there wasn’t really easy lodging near the start of the race.
So when we heard that Jacqueline had run a race, we asked which one, and she said it had been at Mount Hood. So we related the story about a friend of our borrowing our Sprinter, as he was also running that race. Then Ethan (who as it turns out later, seems to notice about the same amount of detail on a continuous basis as 20 normal people) gets a thoughtful look and asks “What color is your Sprinter?” We replied, and I gave a few details about Wally. Ethan said “I think met your friend and his wife!” He related how he had been pacing back and forth at the end of the course to make sure he didn’t miss Jacqueline crossing the finish line. He noticed this couple sitting outside the Sprinter, and had talked to them on his laps.
So of course we invited Glen, Ethan and Jacqueline over for happy hour, as well as our friend and her young son. I also called Christian and his wife and arranged for them to come in a little later. So we’re standing around chatting, and Christian comes in, and IT WAS THEM that Ethan remembered!
It was a fun evening with the talk flowing as easily as the wine. The next day I met Ethan and Jacqueline at Sparrow for an Ocean Roll, and we hiked up Tumalo Falls. The day after that they dropped by the house for our weekly Growler Thursday get-together. They were having so much fun in Bend that they rescheduled their flight back to South Carolina!
I hope you enjoy some wonder like this in your life from time to time.
