I’m on my first business trip in four years.  I used to travel quite a bit, yet it never ceases to amaze me how modern air travel can so easily connect people and places.  I’ve been thinking about ‘connection’ a lot lately – how one person’s actions connect with another’s, the choice to connect or not to connect with strangers, the risks of connecting too personally through social networking, the connection that each individual has with one another, simply by virtue of being an inhabitant of planet earth.  I will never forget the first time I held my baby in my arms; I felt connected with every woman who had ever given birth.

On my way to the airport this morning I stopped by my office to get my laptop so that I could stay connected to the office and home while I was away.   As soon as I arrived at my office door I remembered that I had decided to leave my regular keychain at home and take only my car key.  I didn’t have my office key with me.  I chided myself for being such an efficient packer.  I went down to the lobby to ask the security guard if there was anyone around with a master key who could open my office door, but it was Sunday morning and no one would be there until noon and I couldn’t wait.  I went up to my office once again, hoping that maybe I had left my door unlocked when I left on Friday, but no such luck. When I passed the security guard again on my way out of the building, she informed me that she had just seen Leo in the lobby and asked him to go the 5^th floor to help me.   In that moment, two things struck me –the security guard, at the front desk of a twelve story office building with many other tenants, knew that I worked on the 5^th floor, and I knew immediately whom she meant by “Leo.”  Leo is one of the janitorial staff who works for our company, whom I first met when I was pregnant .  I would run into him, quite literally, almost every day near the women’s restroom and beg him to wait to clean it because I had to go immediately.  As soon as the elevator doors opened at the 5^th floor, I called for Leo and he found me.  I told him that he was my hero and I made a mental note to bring him a little gift from my trip to show my gratitude.  Had I not known Leo by name, I’m sure he would have recognized me and unlocked the door for me anyway, but it felt good that I knew his name, and he, mine.  I realized just how easily and how often we may overlook the very important people who clean the restrooms, sit behind the security desk day in and day out, or politely hold the elevator door in our mad rush to the office in the morning.

Last night, in anticipation of my being away for a few days, we decided to have family movie night.   We made popcorn, gathered blankets, and settled in to watch Children of Heaven, an Iranian film about a young boy.  My 11 year old was unsure about the prospect of watching a movie with subtitles, but she got the hang of it pretty quickly.  My 4 year old sat quietly glued to the film, for even though she couldn’t read the subtitles, she could understand the expression in the children’s eyes and the story that was unfolding.  At one point in the film, a teacher admonishes her young female students to cut their fingernails every Friday night because if they don’t and they eat with dirty fingernails, the bacteria under their nails will make them sick.  Ha!  I turned to my daughters and said, “You see, even as far away as Iran, children are being told to clean their fingernails because of the bacteria that’s under them!”  The girls laughed.  Despite the distance and differences in language and culture, they made a connection with the children in Iran.

Life is like Lego.  Parents know, and children quickly learn, that Cinderella’s castle of primary colors is built on an interdependence of the pieces and with one misplaced piece it can all come crashing down.  In our electronically global everyday lives we have the opportunity to connect with others like never before in history.  We have a responsibility to teach our children to be cautious of strangers, while at the same time, teach them that we are all connected – every mother, daughter, father, son.  After all, to be connected is to be responsible for each other, and to be responsible for each other is to be responsible for this world.