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A few times in life I have been struck by our connectedness, and believe that we indeed are one, as the Bible teaches. In addition to being a student of the Bible, I am a student of near-death experiences (having had one, sort of, when I was five years old) and have read thousands of accounts of those that maintain they've gone "to the other side" and returned to life on earth. Almost universally they stress the oneness of humanity and how that results in the fact that our words, deeds, and even thoughts affect others in ways that we cannot even imagine (also supported by the teachings of the Bible).
A couple of times I have been struck by the briefest encounters that resulted in surprising reactions, and these involved famous people. The first was in New York, while on a break from college to visit the family up in Delaware. It was New Year's Eve 1982, and everyone was walking around all bundled up, me included. I'd been at Rockefeller Center just looking around, and was exiting the building when a woman wearing a big fur coat got out of a limousine to go into the building. Turns out it was Jessica Savitch. Our eyes met for just a moment as we passed each other, and I didn't think much of it other than to say to myself, "Hey, that was Jessica Savitch."
On television the following year, in October of 1983, a news report came out that she'd been killed while driving in a heavy rainstorm. Normally I wouldn't have thought much of a report like that, but immediately the moment came to mind when our eyes met, and I felt a sorrow that surprised me. We didn't know each other at all, but that briefest encounter created a connection that I didn't even know was there until learning of the sad news.
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