Six Degrees of Separation or is it Just Two?

Some years back an idea was popularized by a party game called something like "Six Degrees of Separation from Kevin Bacon." [That's him pictured to the left]. The idea is that all of us are connected to everyone else in the world by no more than six paths of life experiences with other people.

In short, this theory holds that any two people in the world may be connected to each other by learning that the first person (A) knows someone (1) who knows someone(2) who knows someone (3) who knows someone (4) who knows someone (5) who, in turn, knows the second person (6).

In sociological terms, the idea is called "the small world phenomenon." The notion was explored through several experiments conducted by Stanley Milgram examining the average path length for social networks of people in the United States. The research was groundbreaking in that it suggested that human society is a small world type network characterized by short path lengths.

While these experiments are often associated with the phrase "six degrees of separation", Milgram did not use that term himself. (Read more) The notion that we live in a small world is illustrated in this diagram that demonstrates the lines of connections.

I've actually thought that the better focal point for the small world phenomenon would if fact be Rich Cartier, not Kevin Bacon. In my experience, at least, nearly every time I've been with Cartier, and he has met some stranger, Cartier quickly discovered that he knew someone who the stranger also knew. Not six degrees, but only two! Well now, even in Korea I am discovering that it is indeed a small world even if you don't know Cartier! :-)

Here's how this truth has been coming home to me at Handong. A few days ago, I started a small study group that meets in my office on Monday evenings each week. As I was speaking with one of the students named Esther, I learned that although she was Korean, she had grown up in the Philippines where her parents serve as missionaries.


I thought that was interesting and mentioned to Esther that I knew some people who taught at a school in the Philippines called "Faith Academy." A smile came over Esther's face. She said she had graduated from Faith in Manilla. I asked her if she knew Steve and Dottie St. Clair, and while she did not know the St. Clairs personally, she was aware of Faith Academy's Davao campus where Steve teaches.

I had come to know the St. Clairs through a local church (Grace Bible Chapel) in St. Louis where my family and I were in fellowship for a number of years. Steve and Dottie visited the church when they were in the States and during those visits I learned of their work at Faith. So, I think that qualifies as two degrees of separation or maybe, if we must be technical, three. I am getting closer though, Cartier!

Then the next day, I noticed a Westerner (that's usually how I initially describe non-Asians until I get to know them better) walking around campus who I had not yet met. When I crossed paths with her a second time in the same day, I introduced myself and asked Jean where she was from. She replied, "You mean originally?" I said, "How ever you would like to answer the question." She told me that she had been born and grew up in Northern Ireland, but spent 18 years living in a number of countries in Africa where she served with Wycliffe Bible Translators.

She was here at Handong teaching a linguistics class for three weeks. She now lived in the Philippines. The Philippines, you say -- I bet you think I then asked her if she knew the St. Clairs. I wish I had, but Jean's mention of Wycliffe brought to mind another couple that my family and I had also met during our years at Grace. So instead, I asked her if she knew Reg and Barb Naylor who serve with Wycliffe (Read more) in Kathmandu, Nepal.


Once again, that familiar smile came over her face. It was a smile quite similar to the smile on Esther's face when I mentioned that I knew of her high school, Faith Academy. Jean knew of the Naylor's work in Nepal and it was evident that she considered them as outstanding fellow-workers in the mission to translate the Bible into the languages of the many still unreached people groups throughout the world.

That's a definite demonstration of "two degrees"! So, I'm becoming more and more convinced that it truly is a small world; especially as we meet people with whom we are connected, first and foremost, through Christ our Savior and then with others through our service in and for the one, holy catholic (with a lower case "c") church and the world, both of which are growing smaller through diminishing degrees of separation.