Relational beings
It occurred to me the other day that we humans, we're always looking for ways to connect with each other. Have you ever noticed how, when you meet someone new and they tell you they work at Company ABC, and you have a friend working in the same company, you immediately say, "Hey, I know someone working there! Do you know So-and-so?"
Why do we do that? In some cases, the company in question is huge and the two are more likely to have unknowingly passed each other in the hallway than to know of each other's existence. (When people sprang such questions on me, I used to ask which department the person is in, and emphasise that I was hardly likely to know everyone in the company since the newspaper HQ occupies a 17-storey building!)
But even if your new acquaintance only knows of your friend by name, the fact that both of them are in the same company provides an instant sense of connection. When it clicks, when your new acquaintance says, "Yes, I do know So-and-so!" you both exclaim, "The world is so small!" with amazement at having established that small, tenuous connection through your absent mutual friend.
I've often heard it said that we're relational beings but somehow I never realised until now quite how relational we are. It seems somehow... comforting, for lack of a better word, to have friends working in the same company or going to the same church or originating from the same hometown as this other person. Perhaps it makes us hopeful of discovering other points of connection, such as similar viewpoints on various issues, or shared interests.