connectors

As I continue to read Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point I am inspired. The chapter I read today discussed connectors, who are people that bring people together. I was educated on how people really are connected to each other. Malcolm shares a story of how a friend conducted an experience of sending an individual letter to 160 people in Omaha,Nebraska and told them to send them as close as they could to a stockbroker in Boston,Massachusetts. Through the story it turns out that 24 of the letters made the trek all the way and the letters all were given by three common individuals- Mr.Jones, Mr. Brown, Mr. Jacobs. Gladwell calls this the "law of the few".

He conducts tests like this all over America, but he has come to find that some people have a knack for remember people and knowing people. He discusses how "connectors" remember names better and longer. He tells of how some people just know everyone. He runs tests of a list of last names and sometimes the "connectors" can match the names, of faces, of up to 90%. Some people just are amazing with people. It's as if they were designed to meet and greet. As if something within them focuses them to be a people-person and to love all kinds of people, know matter what social class they are in.

This a talent that few people have, but I believe this is probably one of my talents. As I think about my life I have fell in love with all types of people. I am impressed by the white and blue collars of the world. I'm interested in discovering all types of new environments, cultures, and ideas. I have traveled all across this nation and to other nations, such as Israel, Turkey, Egypt, Greece, Italy, and Austria. I am about to live in Togo, Africa and visit Morocco. I feel like I was built to connect people. I have worked job that travel all over the states and spent time in all parts of the world. I love people whatever I go.

Now, I write this, because I want us to all be "connectors" if we are Christians. Christians and all humans, are meant to be relational and to be all about the people. After graduating from Harding I realized that I have left a large group of friends,professors, and family that I will miss dearly, yet I am excited to continue to meet and greet new faces. God has created me to be all about people; my prayer is all people will learn to value relationships as I have come to value them and ultimately as God has created us to value them.