Every once in a while, I comment on how small the world is, as I did here and here. Yesterday it happened again. I received an email from Ms. Yarns&Yarns whose lastname is the same as that of a noted jazz writer. Before reading the email, seeing only the name, I thought perhaps it was a missive from a jazz newsgroup, but then realized that couldn’t be the case, because the writer I was thinking of died several years ago. The last name is rather unusual, but there must be others in the world so named.
When I read the email, I saw that it had nothing to do with jazz. Ms. Yarns&Yarns had written to say that she, too, loved the movie The Five Pennies, and she reminded me that Barbara Bel Gedes died a couple of weeks ago. “I thought you should schedule another viewing of the film, in honor!” she wrote. I agree. She said a few nice things about the design of my blog, and questioned the fact that I do not allow readers to post comments. I wrote back to her, saying that in lieu of allowing comments, I often post interesting emails I receive from readers. And so began a brief flurry of emails between us.
While I perused her blog and found this post about Barbara Bel Gedes titled Farewell, BBG , she was perusing devrahall.com and wrote back: “Your jazz connections mean that you and I have another connection, by the way. My father was a jazz critic of some note….”
I was on the right track from the beginning, and in reviewing her father’s works, I realize that some of it is relevant to my current research. So, the moral of this story is threefold:
1) trust your instincts and listen to those inner voices;
2) people cross your path for a reason — be open to the experience; and
3) talk to strangers as they may turn out to be someone you know.