it's a small world after all

This past Saturday, I attended a conference on the UW River Falls campus called Nature: The First and Essential Prepared Environment. It was a Montessori teacher who has an outdoor classroom near Milwaukee who was presenting things that he does with his school and things that we can take back to our own classrooms.

We had a lovely lunch and a woman who was not in our group sat near us. She was wearing a New England Public Radio t-shirt. I asked about her shirt and she said her son was the host of Morning Edition which as very impressive. When I asked what his name was, she replied "Henry Epp". I told her that I grew up with Epps and she asked me where I grew up. I told her the Epps were from Mountain Lake. It turns out that the Epps I know are cousins of her husband. My friend Susie is a cousin by marriage to the woman I met at the workshop. When I told her that my Mom taught was Becky, Susie's Mom, it made the world even smaller.

I wonder how many people we see and don't even have the time to make that connection. Our world is so large, but yet so small.