Todays Thoughts: Six degrees of Lexulous

Just as in life, or what we call ""real life", facebook is a tangled web of meetings, friendships, circumstances, happenings and bonds. We might make 200 friends, or what facebook calls friends, and only end up really knowing 5 of them well. Out of the other 195, we will probably keep 150 or 160 around and know them here and there, while 30 or 40 will defriend us, or us them, and life will go on.

So far, in all my time on Facebook and all the friends I have made and lost, which is probably close to 1000 at this point, I have only met a few. Those are Kerry Cookie Bacon, Ann Martin Hall, Denise Wooden, Kelley Cillo Yates, Bob Shutes, Madelyn Nobles and Sarah Elizabeth. I have almost met Sheri Hall Bruce, Lori Snyder Decoates, Rick Brown, Kari Wedin, Sandra Sheppard, Brian Arsenault and Barry Cochrane, but those plans fell through. I hope to meet many more as the years pass.

In many ways, that is much like high school. How many people we met, we knew, we forgot about, but we might casually stay in touch with as the years pass. Then there are the friends and friendships we maintain for life.

But just as in life, part of the wonder is how we got from one friend to another, and trying to remember all those ones who came and went and led us to the core "friends" we cherish more than others.
This is my recollection of that, as foggy as it may be at this point.
Lise Milligan has become one of my better friends. We have multiple bonds. We are just about the same age, we are both Canadians, lifelong Canadians, we like Sports, similar music, we play word games, and just generally have a lot in common. How did I come to know Lise Milligan? And where does the trail lead back to?
I got the idea for this blog when I read Lise Milligan's account of losing a friend to cancer that she met playing Lexulous on facebook.

I met Lise Milligan in my music group.
Brian Arsenault added Lise to my music group. They met playing Lexulous.
I met LIse because I met Brian in my music group.
I met Brian because I added Karen Coy Lambert to my music group and she added Brian.
I met Karen in Lexulous. Randomly, she picked me for a game.
I play Lexulous because Cathie Collier got me to try Lexulous.
I met Cathie because she is a good friend of Kelley Cillo Yates
I play Lexulous because Kelley Cillo Yates got me to play Wordscraper. When Wordscraper started to not play for a week, I played more Lexulous and sought out new players.
I met Kelley Cillo Yates by accident when I posted a song on her wall. I thought I was talking to Karen Wilkinson. That song was "I will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor.
I vaguely remember meeting Karen Wilkinson. I don't remember who led me to her, but I remember we met because of our mutual dislike for remakes. In this case we were discussing the remake of the TV show Hawaii Five O.

I now know Sandy Jenkins. Sandy was also added to the music group by Brian Arsenault, and Sandy is also a Lexulous player. I play Brian, Karen, Sandy and Lise regularly.
But, here is where it all connects back up to real life.
I have been into harness racing for about 30 years. I know many people from being a fan, owner and trainer. From time to time I run across them on Facebook. When I first saw Sandy Jenkins in my music group, I noticed she was from Sudbury and also a Jenkins. I had raced many times in Sudbury and one of the better drivers there was Robert Jenkins Jr. I actually knew him casually just to say Hi and he drove for me 2 or 3 times.
Sandy does not really look anything like him, so, being that Jenkins is a fairly common name, I forgot about it. One day, Sandy posted something in the music group that somehow led me to her pics. As I scrolled through a few, I noticed a guy named Gerry Belanger ("Lil Ger"). Gerry has been the top driver in Sudbury for about 10 years and his family owns just about everything in Sudbury.
I made a comment, and it turns out Sandy is Robert Jenkins brother. We chatted a few times about various people we both knew.
Had it not been for meeting Karen Wilkinson discussing Hawaii Five O, I may have never been led to Sandy.
Funny how life works that way. I never met her in all the years I raced and was around Sudbury. It took facebook, and a word game for that to happen.
This coming weekend, I am going to see Amanda Marshall perform a concert at Casinorama in Orillia. I only know about that because Sandy mentioned it in the music group. I have always wanted to see Amanda Marshall, but she was popular when I was running around training horses, so I never had time. Sandy is also going to that concert. I hope to meet her there as well.