Being of Service - Part 7 - series end

IT'S A SMALL WORLD - BUT OUR OWN INDIFFERENCE MAKES IT SEEM BIGGER

This theory of only six degrees of separation between any two people is reported in the prestigious journal Nature, as follows:

'NATURE' ARTICLE
An e-mail experiment has confirmed the famous 'six degrees of separation' of human social networks, but revealed that individuals don't necessarily benefit from their connectedness.

The ease with which two people can hook up depends also on their perceptions of social structures and their motivation to get connected, say Duncan Watts of Columbia University, New York and his colleagues.

Of more than 24,000 chains started, only 384 found their target. Successful chains were, on average, about four steps long, although this number was biased by the greater likelihood of shorter chains being completed. A typical chain length was indeed between five and seven, consistent with …..earlier findings.

But most e-mails did not reach their targets. This, it seems, is mainly because of lack of interest from participants, rather than because of their inability to think of an appropriate person to pass the message to.

The recent study involving e-mail, in which I took part, confirmed the earlier 1967 research up to point - but failed not because the six degrees theory is invalid, but due to apathy on the part of the participants. Most just didn't bother to pass their e-mail on like the experiment called for. By the way, I did.

Here's a good lesson for us. Our influence on the world may be stillborn not because we lack the ability, but because we lack the vision, or the motivation.

If you should be given, by the grace of God, even so much as a tiny morsel of sacred Truth; I beg you don't let it die shriveled and emaciated because you didn't think yourself worthy enough, or capable enough, or important enough, to pass it on into the world around you.

We MUST change the world if it is to survive the present disparity. Do we really want a world where people's lives are so devoid of hope that they willingly blow themselves up? Do we want to continue a world where people's greatest hope is reserved for after they die? Remember this is the case even in North America - where the prospect of Heaven after death is superior to any other kind of personal dream that people can imagine!

Please - change the world, even just a little, toward the kind of positive and empowered thinking that we try to teach here. Give the world, your world, a better idea.

Be of service. Yes, you can.