Gossip Girl. Mandolins and the Dalai Lama

So what do the topics above have to do with each other? Well it truly is a world of "six degrees of separation". Plus you have to love a day that includes each of the above. My friends and work colleagues know that I love the way people connect, especially when serendipity is involved.
I admit it. I watch Gossip Girl! The young women in my office watch it, my friend watches with her daughter and even a guy I know has to see it and it is my guilty pleasure. It is SO silly. We were talking about it in the office and realized that the real life Lydia Hearst will be on the show and we know her brother-in-law from business. Six degrees from Gossip Girl!
Then we are on the train this morning and Mr. B is already on. He is a professor at a top college and very well-read. One morning a year ago he brought an exquisite guitar on the train which he proudly showed us. It really was a treat because it was a reproduction of an 18th century guitar. The train was full of rustling newspapers on a rainy cold morning and the quiet of the rest of the regular passengers who, by now are used to our morning chatter. We asked him to play. It was just one of those moments of beauty. A 50-something year old man in a suit, an ordinary man, until he picked up the guitar! Then he morphed into someone quite extraordinary. His fingers flew across the strings which were pouring out the most voluptuous classical guitar I have heard. Everyone looked up and clapped.
Anyhow, this morning S sat with us and I introduced them and told her a few interesting points about him. She is a "connector" and has a way of making everyone she speaks to feel they are the most important person in the room(or the train as the case may be) . She is terrific. She almost immediately finds out that both the gentleman and her husband both play the mandolin. I don't personally know many who do so I figure this must be a rare occurrence. I mean who takes this up? I imagine it has to be an intelligent person interested in a rare and difficult instruments to play. Now they may play together. Two degrees from dueling mandolins.
Last is the Dalai Lama. Turns out he knows someone from my alma mater who got him to visit our small college.He has been there for three days. My friend who is now on the Board got to meet with him. If she had known back in our days at school that someday she would meet and greet the Dalai lama..well she wouldn't have believed it! 3 degrees from th Dalai Lama!