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Two Degrees of Separation

March 26, 2015 By Talya Tate Boerner 10 Comments

Everyone knows about Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, right? The idea that everyone is six steps away from anyone else in the world. I’m convinced that as the world has continued to shrink, six degrees has dwindled to something more like two degrees of separation. It seems to me that at any moment, I appear to be connected to most every person I come into contact with, and there’s very little separation. My husband thinks this is naturally occurring as I morph more and more into my mother. I think we are all connected, we just don’t take the time to find out.

I have two recent examples to prove my theory.

Example One. This picture was taken at the most recent Hemingway-Pfeiffer Writer Retreat I attended in Piggott, Arkansas last November. I met several new (to me) writers including Ruth, the lady standing beside me.

Two Degrees of Separation

Hemingway-Pfeiffer Writing Retreat (Why did I wear a silly poncho on picture day?)

 

Ruth and I chatted quite a bit throughout the week. She lived in Little Rock. I had just moved to Fayetteville from Dallas. Somehow Baylor University came up.

I graduated from Baylor, I said. My daughter graduated from Baylor, she said. We discovered our Baylor years overlapped. Small world, we agreed.

A few weeks later, Ruth called me. Her daughter read through the anthology published after our retreat and recognized my name.

My daughter, Anne, roomed with you one summer at Baylor, Ruth said. And of course then it all came back. Anne and I were roommates in Alexander Hall during the summer Lady Diana married Prince Charles.

"Wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer photo" by Source. Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia - http://bit.ly/19TZNrD

She (Anne not Lady Di) had long blonde hair, was an English major who planned to go to law school. And she did. She’s an attorney in Little Rock. WHAT are the odds I would attend a writer retreat with my Baylor summer roommate’s mother thirty-three years later?

Example Two. 

Last week, I spent a few days in Texas. (If you missed my trip, you can catch up HERE but this isn’t a sequel so don’t feel compelled, even though I always appreciate the page views.) While in Dallas, I went for my annual physical because I don’t have a new doctor in Fayetteville yet. I’ve been going to my Dallas doctor for years, and my Dallas doctor has had the same nurse for years. The odd thing about this is that after all this time, I learned that my doctor’s nurse is originally from Arkansas. When she said, Oh I’m from Arkansas and I said, yeah, where? and she said well I lived in Blytheville, went to school in Luxora and was born in Osceola but I’m sure you’ve never heard of those towns, I nearly fell off the table. Because I was born in Osceola and had friends in Luxora and know Blytheville as well as any place on earth. Before I left, we talked about friends of friends, American Greetings (where lots of people worked), Big Star (the best grocery store), Erman Lane (the street to drive to get anywhere), and Bobby George’s liquor store (ahem)—things no one except people from there would dare know about. The same doctor (Dr. Fairley) delivered both of us only a few years apart. He was THE doctor in town.

Welcome to Downtown Osceola

Shared from Main Street Osceola Facebook Page

 

So perhaps right here, right now in the comment section of this post, we should all figure out how we are connected, because we probably are. And probably by way less than six degrees of separation. It’s a crazy small world, don’t you agree?

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

[tweetthis]Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon? I think it’s more like two degrees. We are all connected. @hpmuseum [/tweetthis]

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

“Life’s journey is one big path with series of events. All these events are connected.”

― Lailah Gifty Akita 

 

Alabama – Auburn. The dark side of defeat.

December 3, 2013 By Talya Tate Boerner 17 Comments

Have we truly reached the point where society values the BCS bowl race over the human race? Both can be rather barbaric, but death threats to the Alabama kicker? One fan murders another after the game because she wasn’t upset enough over the loss?
I’m as passionate as the next about college football. My favorite show (after Breaking Bad) is ESPN SportCenter.
But folks, it’s only a game—not to be confused with a video game… The game of life comes with a set of social, moral rules that apparently need to be re-played and re-learned. Losses happen.They just do.

Without losses, wins wouldn’t taste half as sweet. This much I know as a Baylor Bear fan.

We’ve reached a new high low. Truly the dark side of defeat.

talya

Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

“How dreadful…to be caught up in a game and have no idea of the rules.” – Caroline Stevermer

Bear Down Baylor

November 23, 2013 By Talya Tate Boerner 6 Comments

The year I graduated from high school, Mike Singletary led Baylor to the Cotton Bowl. I took that as a good sign.
Mike Singletary, Baylor University
Mike Singletary
When Harry and Nancy Wooten invited me to Waco to visit their son (my boyfriend),  I watched the impressive homecoming bonfire and knew it was the college for me. Plus Grant Teaff’s worm story intrigued me beyond anything I had ever heard. 
At Christmas break, I vacated my Arkansas State dorm room, loaded up my yellow corvette and headed west. Although things didn’t work out with the boyfriend, I am forever grateful he connected me to Baylor.
Pat Neff Hall, Baylor University
Pat Neff
Today I should be Christmas shopping. Or brining a turkey. Or something. But I cannot do or plan one single productive thing until Baylor beats OSU tonight. (I did dig out my gold pom-pom and Baylor face tattoos, so that’s something.) 
Until recently, Baylor fans have endured less than stellar seasons. We were the butt of every Southwest Conference joke, even worse than the time-worn Aggie cracks. Schools vied to play us for homecoming game. Yet still we cheered and proudly yelled h-e-e-e-e-y sic ’em bears! at every opportunity. 
My sister and me - Baylor in the 80s
My sister and me with our 1980-something hair. Ready for game day!
I graduated and moved to Dallas.
I worked in banking.
I got married, had two kids, divorced, worked even more, remarried…

Life flew by. Friday nights were spent at high school games. We made occasional road trips to Waco for Baylor games. 

I learned to be satisfied if the bears simply showed up and didn’t embarrass me. We only lost by ten points? That’s a win in my book, I’d say…Coping skills—something learned at Baylor right along with macroeconomic theory and the Cotton-Eyed Joe. We limped along hoping for a football team while supporting the school’s other more successful programs…olympic track athletes…amazing basketball teams…
Yet still I waited for football. 
I moved my kids into their own dorms, not Baylor, but I was okay with that. Baylor was my special place. Each time I drove to Austin, I stopped at the Bear Pit to chat with the mascots. Will this be our year? Usually the bears were hiding…
Still waiting and aging and waiting and aging…

Then quietly and a bit under the radar, Art Briles breathed life into the program. Robert Griffin III was unstoppable. We began to remember what honest-to-goodness fun felt like, because we’d forgotten, or maybe we never knew. 
Throw What You Know - Baylor
cute kid at Alamo Bowl:)
And now—another miracle on the Brazos? 
Maybe this time we don’t need a miracle.
All that waiting and hoping and dreaming and praying…Give us this day our daily bears… it’s time.
Bear down Baylor. 
Do it for me.
Do it for all of Baylor Nation. We’ve been patiently waiting.
Sic ’em Bears!
talya
Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.
Musical Pairing:

Blake Shelton, Sic ’em Bears!

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Hi! I'm Talya Tate Boerner. Writer, Reader, Arkansas Master Naturalist / Master Gardener, Author of

THE ACCIDENTAL SALVATION OF GRACIE LEE (2016)

GENE, EVERYWHERE: a life-changing visit from my father-in-law (2020)

BERNICE RUNS AWAY (Now Available!)

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