I'm reading The Tipping Point and it contains some fantastically interesting research. The author will be at a conference I am attending next week, so I decided to read his book so I will have a greater knowledge of the topic he speaks on.

Anyway--one of the interesting studies in this book addresses the 6 degrees of separation. The guy who performed the study sent out a packet containing information about a stockbroker who lived in Boston to 160 random individuals in Omaha, Nebraska. Their instructions were to write their own name on the back of the packet and send it to someone who could get the packet closer to this stockbroker. As it turned out, 24 of the packets reached the stockbroker in just five or six steps. HOWEVER, 16 of those 24 packets all passed through the hands of one individual whom he calls Mr Jacobs. So the theory is not that we are all only separated by six degrees, we are all connected to a few people in the world and those few people are connected to everyone else.

with me, so far?

i've only just started the book, so i'm sure he will develop these thoughts in greater detail. however, he talks about those few people we are all connected to and divides them up into three categories: connectors, mavens, and salesmen. the connectors are the species that i most identified with and found the most facinating. it seems that most of us go along throughout our day making and establishing contact with our circle of friends. but if we sat down and made a list of our circle of friends (say 40 people) then break down each of those friendships to how we met, we would find that we are friends with certain people b/c of our association with other people.

my husband jason has five very good friends from college. they are all married, and i have become friends with all of them and their wives. so, in reality, i am friends with all ten of these individuals b/c i am married to jason. so my circle of friends (these friends) would appear more like a pyramid than a circle with jason at the top. get it?

connectors don't go around establishing relationships in the hopes that they will be friends with those people. connectors are completely comfortable with the loose friendship, the acquaintance. And developing those acquaintances is a bit of an art form. you have to bridge people from different worlds which means you have to have a foot inside different worlds.

so as i was reading this, i was thinking about how it kind of all ties to apathy. getting up, going to work, coming home, going to church. what are we all involved in? and do we make a point to step outside of our world to enter into another world~filled with new people, possibilities and hope?

again, i find myself circling back around to intentionality. we need to be intentional in stepping beyond our circle into those circles where we can learn from other people. stepping into worlds where we can be the light. as Christians, we do have something to say, and it is a saving grace. i never knew i needed it until it found me. someone stepped into a new world to say, "you can overcome." and it was as if hearing that from someone who was connected to something so much bigger helped me believe that yes, i could do this. i could stand up, i could get out of bed.

what hope, what words can you bring to those who are waiting to hear? do you feel like you have nothing to say? could you be the connector?

posted by Kelly @ 11:29:00 AM