2019 Life Logs, Day 123: Connections
Date: Friday, May 3, 2019
Weather: Mostly Cloudy; High 53, Low 49 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
According to Wikipedia, “Six degrees of separation is the idea that all people are six, or fewer, social connections away from each other. As a result, a chain of ‘a friend of a friend’ statements can be made to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps.” I wasn’t thinking about this last night as I watched The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC when she was interviewing yet another democrat declaring his run for President, Senator Michael Bennet from Colorado. I had seen him before in a bit of a rant on the Senate floor, but had paid no attention to who he was. As Rachel was interviewing him, he mentioned that his parents had taught him the importance of public service. Rachel then started reading his father’s resume of public service jobs, and I exclaimed (to myself) that this guy’s dad was Doug Bennet. I knew Doug Bennet, and his second wife, Midge Ramsey, when they both worked at National Public Radio (NPR) in the 1980’s. Doug was the president of NPR when Mark was being sought after to become the next manager of the only public radio station in New Hampshire at that time, WEVO. He had been contacted by a head hunter in July of 1989 and I suggested Mark ignore this as I was not moving to New Hampshire. We had a great life on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and I had no intention of moving to the cold north country. But the head hunter persisted and Mark was very interested in the challenge of the job as the hope was to expand WEVO into a statewide public radio network. January came and the pressure increased, but I still said no. In February, I went with Mark to the 20th anniversary celebration of NPR at Union Station in Washington, DC. It was Doug and his wife Mitzi that cornered me at that celebration and made a very convincing case for why I should support Mark in his desire to take this job. Doug’s pitch was that it was what was right for public radio, as well as what was right for Mark. Mark thought of Doug as a good friend, and on that evening in Union Station, I realized that it was not just Mark that wanted that job in New Hampshire. He was being encouraged by the powers that be. A month later, I caved, and finally gave into the move to New Hampshire. It was not nearly as painful as I had envisioned and we happily spent the next fifteen years there. But it was a bit of shock last night to realize that the son of a friend is running for President. Made me feel a tad old. Doug and Mark are no longer with us, but I still feel their connection and now the connection of Doug’s son. And I realize that the idea of six degrees of separation is real.
Realizing the connection last night, led me to reflect on my connection to so many other wonderful friends. My good friends Linda and Mike Stuart who are biking around the world are currently in Australia. They are now in Queensland and when I read their blog last night, I realized they are approaching the towns that Mark and I have visited, first when Heather was in college there, and later when we sailed up the coast of Australia. I am now particularly interested in reading their nightly blog to compare our impressions of that part of the world. And then this morning, Jane Woodin and I went for a walk, and we talked about her upcoming trip to Alaska. She and Bruce are going on a cruise, not driving there as Mark and I did, but they will be visiting many of the same places. I am so anxious to hear their report of that trip and to compare notes when they return. Connections, connections.
