Connections

Connections

Many years ago there used to be a neat TV show called “Connections” hosted by a Britt-Science guy who would start the show with a meat-ball or something like it and then take you through Marco Polo, Silk worms, Fiji , the Aztec the Empire State Building and after an hour of this ,  back to the Meat-Ball…….all with a fascinating accent, great stories and beautiful film work. I really enjoyed that show.

Today I had a meeting with a guy who I met in one of my church groups. Actually I first met his son who was my study partner, who happens to have the same name as my son, is the same age and has a similar birthday. I then found out from him that his dad grew up in the same southern Texas City I did and in the same neighborhood. Then two weeks ago I met a guy whose brother was two years behind me in that same elementary school. Connections.

I left that city when I was eleven years old and had never been back until Edy and I took a trip there two years ago to meet with a guy who fabricates furniture for me (for 30 years, but we’d never met). We took a tour through the “old neighborhood” / “barrio” and parked in front of the house I essentially grew up in, off and on ( a story for another day). It was funny how I remembered vividly some parts of town but drew blanks with others. Overall it seemed smaller.

I remember boyhood friends with names like TG, JG, Ink,Surf, and of course Buzzard. Even Buzzards’ Mom would call him Buzzard. It was only later I thought how sad that was. I also had a bud who’s name was Randy Zant. It took my Mother several weeks before she asked me why I was always going over to Randy’s Aunts house? Moms.

We drove around the park I learned to play sports in and the elementary school I noted above which now has no playground but is full of mobile classrooms. I did note that it had air-conditioning and I’ll bet the kids are happy for that. As we drove out of town I thought to myself, “Hum, for 40+ years I’ve remembered, dreamed and had visions of this place and… well, I’m not coming back”.

 My only other similar experience was on the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) from Tokyo to Kyoto in the 80’s when I befriended a Canadian gent who as it happened bought a Condo in a Building I did in Marco Island, FL. He went on to describe in detail all the special things he enjoyed about the project and why he bought it because of those details. I was shocked and awed by the Connections. I never heard from him again.

 Of course in business you always run into a rep who knows your old rep from (fill in the blank) and then of course there is the whole “social networking” thing which is human relationships in a “cloud” and quite a science experiment in and of itself. I honestly find the whole Facebook thing quite fascinating. I have colleagues who swear by LinkedIN as “gospel”. Sometimes we’ll be talking about this guy or that woman and they will enlighten me with deep information about these folks. When I ask where in the world they learned that?.............They reply, “LinkedIN”. Omniscient.

 These same folks have over 1000 “connections” or “Friends” and a ga-zillion “Likes” on their FB pages. Holy Smokes, that’s a lot ! I think I have less that 10% of those combined. I believe they would call that minimally connected.

 Edy is returning tomorrow after being away for a very long time. She is bringing our favorite 7 year old boy for a week. I am thrilled out of my mind that they will be here in less than 24 hours. We have a lot of catching up to do.  Connection, deep and wide.