“The world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love. ~ William Sloan Coffin
People in Rhode Island are always saying, “What a small state we live in.” One, because geographically it is the smallest state but, more so, they say it because when you live in such a small area everyone knows everyone, someone you know probably knows someone else you know. If you talk to a stranger on the street in “Little Rhody” he/she will probably know someone you know. It’s like one large village – you can’t keep secrets in Rhode Island.
Well, I also say we live in a small world. The more I travel, the smaller this globe seems to become. Scientific progress in travel and communications means our network of friends can now span greater distances making our social distances seem much smaller. Case in point…
Saturday, after mozying out of the town of Deadwood, South Dakota, I traveled Highway 90 West to get to Devil’s Tower National Monument in Wyoming. I stopped at a rest stop for a Coke and a smile. When I returned to my vehicle I saw a car with Rhode Island plates parked next to mine, the only two cars in this parking lot, here in the middle of Nowhere, Wyoming! This was the only Rhode Island car I’d seen since leaving my home state forty days ago on this Great American Road Trip. What are the odds?!
Then I met Heidi, the driver of the vehicle.
As it turned out the car wasn’t hers, instead she was delivering the car to Portland, Oregon. Curt Columbus, the Artistic Director of Trinity Repertory Theatre in Rhode Island was donating the car to his nephew. Heidi, who had some free time, offered to drive his car to Oregon.
I know Curt! I’ve met him a few times, I’ve seen a number of his plays at Trinity such as The Merchant of Venice, The Odd Couple, The Receptionist, The Cherry Orchard and Our Town when I was a season subscriber at Trinity Rep. I also know most of the actors associated with the Tony Award-winning Trinity Rep. So here I am meeting Heidi, at a desolate rest stop in Wyoming, who also knows all of the same people because she is also a director of plays – Treva and I saw her production of Middletown at the Brown/Trinity Consortium two years ago! That is what I mean when I say it’s a small world!
So we chatted for a while, took a few pictures and then said farewell. An hour later, with Devil’s Tower National Monument now in full view, I pulled to the side of the road where some other tourists had decided this was a good place to photograph this majestic monolith…
I hope your travels make the world seem smaller and your friends (like Heidi) make your life seem larger.
The gam continues…
It’s always so fun to run into people from Rhode Island. Occasionally, we run into a RIer here in NY and almost always we know somebody, or know mutual people.
Interesting “Did You Know”…
The town that Joe and I moved to, Penn Yan, was first settled by a woman named Jemima Wilkinson and her followers. Jemima Wilkinson moved there from Cumberland, RI, which of course, is where Joe and I moved from.
Small world, indeed!
I didn’t know that. Interesting. Small world!