THE OPEN DOOR: Living in a web of connections – newportri.com

Sandra Matuschka| Newport Daily News

The play Six Degrees of Separation by John Guare popularized the notion that everyone on the planet is separated at most by only six other people; the trick is knowing who they are in reaching out to them.

The concept began in the early 20th century as a game in a short story by a Hungarian author, and gradually spread into algorithms, video games, films, psychology, mathematics, research projects, and many other areas. My interest in this concept, however, is more one of a metaphysical synchronicity. I have experienced, and heard about from others, so many synchronicities of connection that I start to wonder if the substratum of the phenomenon is not in fact both a physical and a spiritual one albeit one that we have yet the ability to understand.

I wont live long enough to read all the books that would be relevant to such a concept. Such books would include not just spiritual concepts, but quantum physics, psychology, chaos theory mathematics and the new physics.

Although logic and science easily can be used to explain such synchronicities as my Philadelphia (Penn.) father meeting a relative, and another time a neighbor, in trenches in Germany in WWII, so too might psychology and metaphysics. Analytical psychologist Carl C. Jung, who first introduced the concept, said it described circumstances that appear meaningfully related, yet lack a causal connection. I suspect we all have our own criteria for what is meaningfully related, not to mention differences in what constitutes causal connection.

Someone I knew once said that experiencing synchronicity meant nothing more nor less than that you were on the right path, kind of like a cosmic pat on the shoulder and a wink as you made your way through life. It certainly could be at least that. But, in so many instances it seems to presage so much more. Inspirational speaker Iyanla Vanzant has a mantra that fits with the concept of connectedness that I particularly lean toward. She makes a note that although she uses the word God as her particular understanding of the Divine, any word that signifies your concept of oneness/omnipresence/the all, is fine: Where I am now, God is. You can emphasize a different word in the phrase each time and enrich the meaning. It kind of goes back to the God is everywhere phrase you might have heard or learned in younger years.

Many decades ago, when I was young and nave (now Im just old and nave!), I travelled alone to Greece for my first trip abroad. I was working in a hospital in Philadelphia as a medical technician at the time, and a new doctor arrived just before I left on my trip. He was Greek. On an impulse, I asked him for the address of his father/family, and I offered to stop by with greetings. He was hesitant, as his relationship with his father was not good, but reluctantly gave me the address. The ensuing misadventure is too long to write (it became a book/memoir), but the salient point is that because I had that address and got to connect with the family, I was saved from a truly disastrous mistake. All because I had a hunch to acquire an address from the new doctor.

We live in a web of connections to one another, mostly unknown; all we have to do is communicate and be aware. If nothing else, being aware of the web of connections we have to one another should help to humanize our actions and reactions, to make us realize the need to be thoughtful of and kind to our fellow humans. When we speak of the human family, its not just an expression. We truly are joined in many real and mysterious ways to one another. Communication is one of the keys to finding those connections. I think curiosity plays a part as well.

Basically, we could be moving through life in a non-three-dimensional medium about which we have little-to-no idea, but that somehow helps to shape the direction of our lives when we are moving toward our good. I like a quote from Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, a pioneer in near-death studies, which embodies this concept: There are no mistakes, no coincidences; all events are blessings given to us to learn from.

Sandra Matuschka of Tiverton is a freelance writer and columnist. Send feedback and suggestions to smatuschka@cox.net or C/O The Newport Daily News, P.O. Box 420, Newport, RI 02840.

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THE OPEN DOOR: Living in a web of connections - newportri.com