Six Degrees of Greatness

One of the fun, pop culture games we used to play at parties when I was in college was called "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon." The game is, I believe, still known, if not popular. The premise of the game was to name an actor and trace a path of other actors with whom that actor had appeared in movies all the way back to Kevin Bacon and do so in six or fewer names. The game was based on the conceit that Kevin Bacon was such a popular actor, appearing in numerous films, that you could trace almost anyone back to him. I'm not sure how Kevin Bacon got swept up in all of this, but the fact is that most of us live within six degrees of one another. (I'm particularly thrilled to be within three degrees of Jennifer Aniston, but she still doesn't return my calls.)

At the heart of the "six degrees" concept is the idea of connection, or for those who like to complicate matters, interconnection -- it's probably all the same thing. The point is that people are connected in ways they often don't suspect. The same is true of ideas. Our form of government, for example, can be traced from our founders back to thinkers like John Locke and, ultimately, Plato. The roots of our democracy lie in the ruins of ancient Greek civilization. But when it comes to the realm of ideas, how are these connections made? Most often, it is through writing.

In the same way that the technology I'm using to write and publish this to you is closely connected to the first printing press that produced the Gutenberg Bible and revolutionized the dissemination of ideas, those very ideas are connected with one another. As a student, you are at the heart of this connection. Everything you read, every lecture you attend, every question you ask is part of the great adventure of discovery that our species has been on since the very day we appeared on the planet. In a very real way, you have access to a connection with the entire sweep of human history. Furthermore, while you may not realize it yet, you have a connection to the far reaches of the future. That connection may be tenuous or great depending on what you do with your life, but the connection exists just as surely as you do.

Why am I telling you all this? Because it remains as true today as it was in the distant past: the most effective and long-lasting way to communicate your ideas is through writing. That may not seem like much, but consider that almost everything you enjoy springs from an idea. Your i-Pod? It didn't exist until someone had the idea to invent it. Television? Radio? Music itself? All ideas. In fact, if you attend Wright State University, you go to school at a place named after two people who had many ideas, several of which led to the invention of the aeroplane.

"Cogito, ergo sum." That's the Latin for, "I think, therefore I am," René Descartes' insightful proof of existence. In a very real way, to think is to live. Ralph Waldo Emerson echoed this idea when he wrote that the unexamined life isn't worth living. What he meant, I think, is that the depth and quality of our lives comes from examining it, from using our critical and creative faculties to understand ourselves and the world we live in. That's the underlying reason for academic inquiry. It is only one way to understand ourselves, but it is a serious and important way to do so. Whatever else you may want to accomplish while you're in school, don't miss the opportunity to learn all you can about yourself, others, and the world in which we all live. Intentional pursuit of that goal may well lead to greatness.