My Oldman had this saying, “It is a small world, but I wouldn’t want to paint it….”
He used this phrase whenever he met somebody that knew someone that he knew. The six degrees of separation.
I think about this when I scroll through my friend list on Facebook and see people that I know from different parts of my life…… that know each other.
Then I think…. If these people ever realize that they know me….will they tell John Shepley stories?
My dad also told me to learn how to make friends and to determine the difference between friends and acquaintances.
Facebook makes that hard to do. It was easy in 1993. Either you knew someone or you didn’t. Someone asked me the other day how I knew that guy. I told him, from Facebook.
If I told my dad that this guy was a good friend… he would ask me what the guy’s birthday is. If you don’t know a friends birthday than they are an acquaintance. Pretty good advice.
But Facebook makes that easy now!
When I get birthday greetings on Facebook, I tell myself that I’m going to make a point of wishing everyone a happy birthday. I’m good about it for about six weeks after my birthday, but six months after…. Not so good.
For years I would call my mom on my birthday at 11:51am and tell her that I love her. I was born just before midnight. Many of those calls when I was in my twenties happened after a ton of shots. Only a mom can appreciate getting drunk dialed on her child’s birthday.
My dad started losing friends and colleagues when he was about the age that I am now. He was pretty sad when I look back and think about it.
How quickly life goes from losing your first pet when you’re a child. Then you get to an age where you bury your grandparents, great aunts and uncles. The hard period of losing your parents comes next. That is the cycle where my age group is in right now.
The shitty news is that our older years will bring the loss of friends, acquaintances and colleagues.
Friends from high school. Colleagues from the trading floor. Friends you met when your kids went to school together. Kids that you played little league with and were Altar boys together.
Growing up you thought some of those people were jagoffs. Now that we are all older we realize that they are someone who has helped us paint the world smaller.
Like Johnny Cougar said forty years ago… hold on to sixteen as long as you can, changes coming real soon make us women and men.
Those changes came real fucking quick Mr. Mellencamp.
Today is the Fall Equinox. Equinox is a great Scrabble word. It’s also going to be a gorgeous day for a rugby match and an engagement party. I just got to take Betty to get her emissions tested first. Then I can enjoy the day.
Happy Saturday Chalkheads… Go paint the world with whatever color you have in your paint can.
