The Griffon News

With the recent return of ABC’s hit drama series LOST, many viewers are anxious to tune in and hope that their favorite characters will be found. According to the plot  summary at us.imdb.com, for a while their goal is simple survival, but they soon realize that it was far more than mere chance that brought them together, and each of them has a purpose that will help them unlock the island’s secrets.

Through further character development in each week’s episode the viewers learn that the characters are connected to one another in one way in their lives before they  boarded the plane in Australia. During the recap that the writers narrated on Feb. 7, new viewers were brought up to speed on everything that had happened thus far in the series. The writer said that just like the characters on the show, he believes that in real life we are all connected to one another through the six degrees of separation.

Before the plane crash, Sawyer shares a drink and a conversation about father and son relationships with Jack’s father in a bar one night. Then later in a different scene Jack says to Sawyer, “That’s why the Red Sox will never win the series.” Sawyer asks him what he just said, and Jack tells him that it’s something his father always said.

Sawyer then realizes that it was Jack’s father he shared a drink with, because that was the opening part of their conversation at the bar.

The thought that we are all connected to one another in a sense has stuck with me since last Wednesday night.

When I was in high school I went on a date with a college student from K.U. He took me to the library to do research. Wow. What an exciting date. I was bored and didn’t really like the guy that much, so I went around the stacks flirting with the other guys there. I told them that I was a junior and biology major. I needed help operating the microfilm machine. Playing dumb and helpless in the library always gets you noticed. There was one guy who tried to help me. He helped me with my so-called research. But nothing came of it. Two years later, when I met the man I eventually married, he commented that he felt like we had met before. He remembered helping a girl with the microfilm machine one night. I think that it is true as in the plot summary of LOST that chance brings us together, and we each have a purpose that will help us unlock some of the secrets of life.

So, think about it. If I were to have exchanged phone numbers with him in the library when I was only in high school, what would have come of it? I would have let him take
me out a few times, buy me dinner and a movie, have a fun time and that would have been that. Move-on, Move-up was my philosophy on life at the time. That being said, I would not be here at Missouri Western. Our children would not exist. You would not be reading this article. You also probably wouldn’t have a very helpful Electronic Resources Librarian at this University.

The old cliché, “timing is everything” is so true. The timing was all wrong the first time I met him, and because the purpose for me meeting him was so great, chance had to
bring us together again.

Perhaps the underlying message that we are all connected in a sense will remind us that those we meet today may be important in our lives.

Just because we do not form a relationship with every person we meet, does not mean that we may not meet them again later in life and at that point it would be for a greater purpose.