It's a Small, Small, Small, Small World

This is how small the world can be sometimes, and how cool Facebook can (occasionally) be:

In February, during the Berlinale film festival, I was standing on line to buy tickets for a friend and me. You might remember that Berlinale ticket-buying is a massive undertaking that can involve standing on line for as much as an hour or two.

Anyway, on this particular line-standing marathon, I finally reached the front of the line (after two hours!) and my debit card didn't work in the machine at the ticket desk. (Even though everywhere else, it worked fine.) I was FIVE EUROS short of being able to pay in cash. I asked the guy at the desk if at the very least I could run to an ATM, come back in five minutes, and pay for the films I'd already listed for him – rather than going to an ATM and then having to get back on line for another two hours. Nope, he said.

Desperation. Exhaustion. A woman standing a couple places back from me said, here, take the money from me, I'll give you my bank account number and you can transfer it to me later. She was a complete stranger. With no way of knowing who I was or that I'd really pay. (And yes, it's only five euros - but still, the trust was what astounded me.)

I got my tickets, then went home and transferred the money, along with my deep gratitude.

Fast forward to now, July, and I just got a message on Facebook: It's from the same woman, who just stumbled across me because it turns out we have mutual acquaintances. Three of them, in fact, all through different connections, none of it related at all.

She asked if I'd like to meet up for a coffee or something with her and her boyfriend who happens to be visiting, since he also remembered her telling him the story from the Berlinale line, and was equally excited when she told him we'd now virtually crossed paths again.

It's a small world. In a city of 3.5 million.